An Unexpected Change
by pensmith210
Summary: An unexpected bit of family heritage turns Draco Malfoy's world upside down. Forced by circumstance to finish up at Hogwarts under a new alias, what will the future hold? Post DH Hogwarts, Harry/Fem!Draco.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All of the wonderful world and characters of Harry Potter belong exclusively to the wonderful J.K. Rowling! **

Chapter 1

There was a light knock on the door of the room. Draco put the book he was reading down on the end table and stretched his arms above his head, enjoying the responding cracks in his shoulder blades. He strode over to the door and pulled it open.

"Yes, Mother?"

"Draco, dear, we have a guest. Would you please join us in the study?" Draco raised one graceful eyebrow in question, but followed his mother out of the bedroom. Before the war it was common for the Malfoy's to have guests, but given that the majority of their supposed 'friends' were now behind bars, any visitors were a rare occurrence.

_Before the war…_ Draco thought to himself with a sneer. Before the war the Malfoy's were respected, even a little feared. Now they were considered the cowards who were only out of Azkaban because of the protection and pity of the wizarding world's great _Golden Boy._ Before the war they had money and privilege – now they were practically squatting in one small wing of their manor barely surviving on what was left of the Malfoy fortune.

But if Draco was honest with himself, 'before the war' wasn't right – before the Dark Lord would be more accurate. Before his family gave everything they had to a madman and dragged him along for the ride. His hand automatically went to his left forearm, feeling the damage through his shirtsleeve. _Just another horrible reminder_…

He followed his mother down the hall and into the small study. The tension in the room was palpable – Lucius was pacing agitatedly in front of the fireplace occasionally stopping and looking at the imperious woman who sat in one of the armchairs calmly sipping tea.

"Grand-mère?" Draco asked in surprise. The woman had been a constant fixture in Draco's young childhood, either staying at the manor or having the family come stay in her villa in the south of France but she and Lucius had had a falling out over his – _darker_ – tendencies just before Draco went to Hogwarts.

"Draco, darling. And Narcissa! Oh it is wonderful to see you both again," She stepped across the small room, to place light kisses on both Draco's and Narcissa's cheeks in greeting. Her steel gray hair was pulled back into a fashionable chignon and she was dressed in simple flattering robes.

"Mother, is this really necessary…" Blanche Malfoy turned on her son with a glare.

"Be quiet Lucius and let me enjoy seeing my grandson and daughter-in-law for the first time in almost ten years! Now sit down. " She snapped before turning back around to Narcissa and Draco. Lucius stopped pacing and looking cowed and sat down in the other armchair. Draco joined his mother on the couch, barely containing his laughter at watching his father bend beneath Blanche's iron will.

"My, what a handsome young man you've become Draco dear." The rest of the family sat in silence as Blanche lowered herself into the armchair nearest to Draco and continued to slowly sip her tea. Lucius still looked agitated, his eyes jumping between his mother and Draco, as if silently willing something to happen. Finally it was Narcissa who spoke up.

"Although it is truly wonderful to see you again after all these years, I must inquire as to the purpose of your visit. I'm afraid we cannot offer you quite as nice a stay as we have in the past."

"Not to worry Narcissa, I am merely here to attend to a small family matter. I should not need to stay very long and I have arranged for lodgings at my favorite hotel in London." She smiled at Narcissa. Blanche was still an attractive woman, particularly for her age, but Draco could see in her smile that she must have been beautiful in her youth. _A ruthless sort of beauty_… Draco thought with a small smile. He had heard the story many times in his childhood – how Blanche had won Abraxas Malfoy's hand despite not being from an old or illustrious wizarding family.

"Draco, please give me your hand," He proffered his hand and she grasped him tightly by the wrist with one hand and quickly pricked his palm with the other.

"Ow!" Draco reflexively tried to jerk his hand away but his grandmother's tight grip kept it in place. A drop of blood welled in the center of his palm. She placed a small vial against his palm and tilted until the drop of blood rolled into the tube. She then removed another vial from her robes, this one filled with a small amount of clear liquid and combined it with the blood. She swirled briefly and then set the vial down next to her tea. Narcissa and Draco both stared at her in utter confusion, Draco rubbing at the small cut on his palm. Lucius merely stared into the empty fireplace as if trying to ignore the entire procedure.

"What was that?" Draco snapped. The cut hadn't hurt _that _badly but he was, in general, opposed to random drawing of his blood.

"Just a small test, Lucius underwent the same thing when he was your age. It should only take about ten minutes to get the results," She responded calmly.

"A test for what?"

"In the fifteenth century one of your ancestors, a young man by the name of Demetrius Malfoy, fell in love with a beautiful woman. However, his family did not approve of their relationship. Despite his family's objections Demetrius continued to court this woman. Their worst fears were realized when he first brought her to meet his family. Not only was this woman not a witch, she was also not completely human." She paused.

Draco was unsure as to what this story had to do with their current situation, but Blanche Malfoy was the type of woman where when she talked, you listened. After a sip of tea Blanche continued the story.

"Demetrius' family forbade him from seeing the woman but although he had stopped a formal courtship he continued to visit her. His family ignored it, instead attempting to pair him with more suitable women in hopes that he would forget his youthful fancy and settle down. Nearly a year passed and he continued to visit the woman as well as turn down the many potential brides his father tried to set him up with. One night Demetrius returned to the manor broken and disheveled and carrying a newborn child. His parents quickly arranged a marriage with a plain girl from a respectable family and covered up the entire affair. This woman raised the child as her own and no one outside the Malfoy family knew anything about Demetrius' affair. The child was a boy and therefore became the heir and eventual head of the Malfoy family. He never showed any signs of his maternal heritage but continued to pass his mother's blood down through the Malfoy line. It has become tradition to check every child born with Malfoy blood to see whether Demetrius' lover's blood has manifested. It is very rare but on occasion…"

All four occupants of the small room were suddenly distracted by the small vial on the tea table – its contents had started spinning independently, shining brightly, the light filling the room. The spinning slowed and the contents could be seen more clearly. It was still emitting light, but it was softer now, more like moonlight upon water and the liquid had a silvery sheen to it. Blanche and Lucius both stared openmouthed at the small vial. Under other circumstances it would have been comical to see these two refined people in such shock.

"Grand-mère – what does that mean?" Draco couldn't understand why his voice was shaking, surely this couldn't be that bad? Hadn't his life already hit rockbottom? What is the worst that the vial could mean?

"Well, dear, I believe –" She paused, "I believe that means you tested positive." Blanche said this slowly, almost in disbelief. Lucius had stood up and was pacing again, Narcissa looked nearly as scared as Draco felt.

"What does the mean?" Draco asked again, his voice a little more strained, "You said she wasn't completely human, what was she?" Blanche reached out and picked up the vial, holding it softly in her hands. She kept her eyes trained on the small vial, the soft light playing across her face and hands as she answered Draco.

"She was a veela,"

"But what does that mean for me?" Draco's voice was getting increasingly more panicky. It was more due to the reactions of everyone else in the room that he was so panicked. His grandmother seemed lost for words, which had _never _happened before, his father was acting like a caged animal and his mother looked like she was about to faint. They were not a weak family, especially after what they had been through in the past few years, and to have shaken his parents this much… the pit of Draco's stomach dropped.

"It seems that her blood, and therefore her magic, are particularly strong in you." His grandmother answered carefully.

"Has this happened before?" He locked eyes with Blanche, willing her to give more information, to explain what had his family so on the edge.

"Yes, as I said before, its rare but once every few generations there is someone in whom the veela magic manifests." She paused again, as if hesitant to continue.

"What happened to them? What's going to happen to me?"

"As far as I'm aware, there are several ways in which the veela magic manifests, increased magical strength, increased ability to, ah, attract males, as well as some others. There also seem to be a number of physical changes that occur as well, enhanced beauty being the primary one."

Draco laughed and sighed with relief, looking around at his family who did seem to find it nearly as funny as he did.

"So you're telling me that I'm going to become a more powerful wizard, become more attractive than I already am and the only cost is that I may have to bat off a few unwanted male suitors?" Draco leaned back in the couch, the knot in his chest loosening, but his grandmother remained tense and continued to speak in a slow and hesitant manner.

"A majority of the instances in which the veela blood has manifested have been young women, in which case the effect is what you have described. However, there have been a few instances when it has manifested in a male member of the Malfoy family, and in that case, well, this case, the physical effects are quite a bit more… severe."

Draco could tell his mother and father had reached the same conclusion by the pale, worried looks on their faces but he couldn't seem to wrap his head around what was happening. He tried to remember all he could about veela – he remembered seeing them at the Quidditch World Cup before his fourth year at Hogwarts, what had happened? He had embarrassed himself in front of Potter by nearly jumping off the balcony, and then there was that time later when they had started to fight with the leprechauns. He tried to remember more about the actual creatures but he couldn't come up with anything at all.

"Severe?" He asked quietly, terrified of what his grandmother might say next. Blanche leaned forward and clasped his hands.  
"Draco, dear, veela are exclusively female," That was when Draco broke. He started laughing hysterically, frantically looking around at his family. The laughter subsided into panicked gasps.

"You're telling me what? That I'm a _girl?_ I can assure you I most definitely am not."

"Draco, I know, but…"

"So what, I'm going to turn into a _girl? _That's impossible, I'm a man. So the test must be wrong."

"It's not. This test should have been done when you came of age, but for obvious reasons that wasn't really possible. If the test had been done then it may have been incorrect but now that the magic has been manifesting for nearly two years… there's no chance. As soon as the magic finishes manifesting the physical changes will begin."

"No. It's impossible! NO!" Draco stood up and left the room, running out of the house and onto the grounds. He kept walking until he came to the edge of their property, the bank of a small lake, where he collapsed head in hands. _Its not true… its not true… its not true… _

For the next few days Draco did what he was best at, he became cold, he locked away any panic, and he refused to talk to his family. His mother kept trying to talk to him, his grandmother stayed in England and visited every day. It was easier to avoid his father – Lucius wouldn't even meet his eyes, let alone try to talk. He spent most of his days out of the house, either wandering the grounds or around London. He was able to convince himself that it was all a farce. For the first time, about a week later, he was able to fall asleep without thoughts of his grandmother's first visit keeping him awake.

Draco's eyes shot open; there was a bright flash of lighting followed immediately by a roar of thunder that seemed to shake the house. He tried to flip around and ignore the storm that raged outside but a painful spasm shook his body. Feeling bile rise in his throat Draco pulled himself out of bed falling on the floor as another spasm shook his body. He dragged himself across the floor, the flashes of lightning illuminating the room and into the bathroom as the spasms started to come more quickly.

He had never known pain like this, nothing compared, not even the Cruciatus curse. He collapsed halfway on the tile floor of the bathroom screaming in pain, back arching off the floor, every muscle pulled tight until it passed. Draco begged for someone to come help him, for the pain to end but his pleas were drowned out by the storm. He pulled himself up onto the toilet and puked violently as the next spasm rolled through his body. It felt like every single piece of his body was being turned inside out, rewritten, remade. When the next spasm hit it felt as if he was being torn in two and as the pain reached levels Draco didn't even think were possible everything went black.

When he came to the storm had ended and soft morning light filled the bathroom. Draco lifted his cheek from where it had been resting on the tile floor. He felt extremely weak and barely had the strength to pull himself up off the floor. The movement caused his head to throb – pinching his eyes shut he brought one hand up to his temple, the other he kept gripped tightly on the edge of the counter. Something tickled the back of his hand.

His heart started beating faster, keeping his eyes shut he slowly moved his hand up past his temple. _Hair, too much hair…_ the smooth hair kept going far past where Draco knew his hair ended. His hand dropped and gripped the counter equally as tight as the other. Slowly he opened his eyes and met those of his reflection in the mirror.

The reflection was definitely Draco – same gray eyes, same aristocratic cheekbones and nose, same graceful eyebrows. But the reflections lips were pinker, its eyelashes thicker and longer, the angles softer - everything about the reflection was distinctly feminine_. _Long blonde hair fell down both sides of her face, almost to her waist. As Draco followed the straight locks down his eyes rested on something in the reflection that caused his already sporadic heart beat to speed up even more.

Releasing his death grip on the counter Draco stumbled out of the bathroom and stopped in front of the full-length mirror in the corner of his bedroom.

_No… _very slowly he brought his shaking hands up to the collar of his pajama top. He started undoing the buttons one at a time, taking shaky breaths as each movement revealed more. Several buttons down the top slipped off one shoulder and then the other. Two more buttons and the shirt was all of the way off, forgotten on the floor as Draco's breath caught in his throat.

The girl in the mirror was beautiful. She had a graceful neck, slender waist and perfectly proportioned breasts with light pink nipples. Draco's hands explored the figure, feeling the curves of her waist, the weight of her breasts, the angle of her cheekbones. She was perfect,except for… _except for her scars. _One crossed from her shoulder, between her breasts, down to the opposite hipbone.

_The sectumsempra scar and then… _Draco watched as the figure in the mirror slowly rotated her left forearm forward, revealing…

"Its me… I'm a…" Draco couldn't even finish the sentence. She pushed down her already loose pajama pants and screamed.

**A/N: Hope you like! First go at actually publishing some fan fiction - I know the "Draco is a Veela" concept is a little overused but _hopefully_ this will be an interesting twist on an old story. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for the reads and reviews! Didn't really expect anybody to start reading this, let alone favorite/follow/review - consider me extremely flattered! *emotions***

**Disclaimer: If only I had the creativity and imagination to have created this world - but that honor belongs to J.K. Rowling!**

Chapter 2

Narcissa hadn't been able to sleep since Blanche had delivered the news about Draco. At night she lay beside Lucius staring up at the canopy above their bed until the sun rose, at which point she would rise and try to occupy her time in some other manner. Any moment she wasn't doing something she was thinking about Draco. She feared for her son, who had been through so much already. All of her attempts to talk to him about what Blanche had said had been received with cold looks and silence.

She had spent this particular night listening to the storm raging outside, Lucius yet again unmoving beside her. When the storm had broken and the first rays of sunlight broken through the clouds, she made her way out of bed and into the small kitchen. Narcissa had just put water on to boil for tea when she heard the scream. Although the voice was unfamiliar she knew exactly whom it was who had made the heart-wrenching sound.

"Draco!" She made her way quickly to his room. When she opened the door the sight broke her heart. An achingly beautiful girl was curled up on the floor, sobs wracking her body. Narcissa gathered the girl into her arms and held her as they both cried.

"Oh, Draco…"

* * *

When the sobs finally stopped Draco extricated herself from her mother's embrace and stood back embarrassed. Narcissa tried to talk to her but Draco backed away even further shaking her head. She made her way over to her bed and buried herself under the covers, wanting to sink deeper and deeper, wanting to disappear.

"Draco, honey, can we please talk?" Draco felt the bed shift as Narcissa sat down and put a light hand on her back. She was in serious danger of breaking down again if her mother didn't leave soon.

"Go away!" Draco jerked at the sound of the unfamiliar high voice coming out of her mouth. More tears were squeezing themselves out of her eyes and she shut them tightly to prevent it. Narcissa seemed to hesitate, but eventually lifted herself off of Draco's bed and walked slowly out of the room.

Draco buried herself more deeply, curled up in fetal position in the middle of the bed, and pulled the covers around her. She felt broken and bruised, it even hurt to cry and yet the sobs kept coming and coming wracking her body like the spasms of the night before as reality began to set in.

_I'm… I'm a girl._

* * *

The next few days were even worse than the previous few had been. Narcissa tried desperately to keep her family together but nothing she did seemed to help. Lucius had insisted on seeing Draco when he awoke and had immediately left the manor not returning until late the next afternoon smelling of liquor. After that Draco wouldn't see anyone and wouldn't leave the bedroom at all, not even for food or drink.

It was several days before Draco was finally hungry enough to pull herself out of bed. She had spent the last few days slowly putting walls up, locking away her emotions and compartmentalizing, as she had always been so good at doing. The only way she was ever going to adapt to this situation was going to be by approaching it practically and without emotion. She had still refused to accept the permanence of the transformation, but was able to deal with the necessities of the moment.

She hadn't put any clothes on since the change and glanced around her room, unsure of what to wear. Narcissa had left a stack of women's clothes just inside her room – she pulled out a bra and underwear out of sheer necessity but eschewed the rest of the pile instead pulling on a pair of slacks and her, well what had been her, favorite sweater. Only once she was fully dressed did she finally meet her reflection in the mirror.

Although it hadn't been brushed or washed her hair still feel in shiny sheets nearly down to her waist, smaller pieces framing her face. She had been fairly tall for a guy and even though she was a fair bit shorter she was still tall for a girl. The sweater swamped her now petite figure and she had to roll the sleeves up several times to even reveal her hands. She'd had to blast a new hole in one of her belts to keep the trousers up and rolled the bottoms so as not to trip on the hems. _I look like Potter in these over-sized clothes! _Draco sneered at her reflection until her stomach reminded her why she was even out of bed.

She slowly snuck down the hall, hoping to duck into the kitchen without anyone noticing. She paused just before entering, stopping outside and listening to the conversation that was occurring inside.

"I just don't know what to do anymore, Blanche! He…she won't even see me, I'm his mother and I can't do anything to help. It feels like I failed… like he blames me! And Lucius can't even stay in the house. He blames himself. After the past several years all we wanted to do was live a quiet life, keep to ourselves, rebuild our family and then this happens!" Narcissa was obviously distraught, her voice breaking and the sound of crying filling the small kitchen.

Draco felt her stomach drop and cheeks burn with guilt… all her mother had been trying to do was help and yet she had been locking her out physically and emotionally, making her blame herself when this was not her fault. Draco rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, causing silence to fall between the two women. Blanche was the first to regain her composure.

"My, Narcissa spoke the truth – you make a beautiful woman, Draco," Blanche said in her normal straightforward matter, but with a melancholy smile. Draco crossed her arms self-consciously and sat down at the table with the two older women.

"Um… thanks? Mother, is there anything I could possibly eat?" She still wasn't used to the new voice and it cracked several times during her request.

"Of course, dear, you must be starving!" Narcissa jumped up and summoned two house elves (the house elves had remained loyal to their family despite the plummet in their wealth) to begin preparing a meal. She then sat down closer to Draco and put a hand up to her face, "Are you feeling okay, dear? Do you need anything else?"

"I'm fine, Mother,"

Blanche opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by the arrival of an owl at the window. It swooped in and deposited a thick envelope on the table. Narcissa picked up the envelope, flipping it forward to read the front.

"_Mister Draco Malfoy," _Her voice caught on the 'mister,' "Its your Hogwarts letter… I guess you probably won't be needing this," she continued, her voice shaking slightly.

"No." Draco said firmly.

"What?" Narcissa and Blanche both looked at her questioningly.

"I'm going to Hogwarts. I'm going to finish." She said, raising an eyebrow in challenge at the two older women.

"But Draco, dear, I mean, its your choice, but surely you don't mean to just continue as if nothing has happened?" Blanche said hastily.

"What you mean is am I going to tarnish the Malfoy name by revealing our less than pure heritage and gallivanting around in my new form so the press can have a field day," Draco said icily, narrowing her eyes at her grandmother. Blanche paled.

"No, of course not! I was thinking –"Draco cut her off.

"Not to worry, grand-mère, I've taken the Malfoy reputation into consideration. This family doesn't need to deal with any more publicity."

"How, then?" Narcissa chimed in. Draco looked coolly at both women and said simply:

"Draco Malfoy needs to die."

* * *

Harry blinked a couple times, his eyes adjusting to the bright sunlight. He'd just had one of those odd experiences where one moment you're fast asleep and the next, wide-awake with no pleasant in-between dreamland. He briefly considered giving sleep another try but as Ron's snores reverberated throughout the small room he gave up and grabbed his glasses off the nightstand.

Oddly enough, majority of the Burrow seemed to still be asleep and Harry relished the quiet. For the first half of the summer his life had been an endless flurry of motion. He'd done his duty as the wizarding world's poster boy, done press conferences, accepted awards, rewards, shook hands, kissed babies, the whole shebang. Harry had never enjoyed being in the spotlight and was extremely grateful when he could finally retreat to the Burrow and spend the rest of his summer with the Weasleys.

He stepped into the kitchen to find Mrs. Weasley already at work cooking breakfast.

"Ah, good morning Harry!" She said warmly, "First one up again, it seems!"

"And yet I can never seem to beat you up, Mrs. Weasley,"

"Oh, you know me, there's always something to be done around here. It'll be a few until breakfast is ready, but there's coffee on the stove if you'd like some." Harry gratefully poured himself a mug and sat down at the large kitchen table.

"Oh, your Hogwarts letters are here! Its lovely to see those again, makes it seem as if everything is back to normal," Mrs. Weasley said with a small hint of sadness in her voice. Although everyone had tried his or her best to move on, the loss of Fred and all the others still lingered in the house, in the new wrinkles on Mr. Weasley's face or the small downturn in Mrs. Weasley's mouth. They all had their scars from the war, physical and emotional.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see another one of these!" Harry picked up the stack, flipping through them until he found his own. Hermione's was particularly thick. Although he, Ron and Hermione had all been given automatic acceptance to the Auror training program, or any ministry position for that matter, Hermione automatically decided to return to Hogwarts to finish her education. After much persuasion she got Ron and Harry to join her as well. Although memories of the final battle still haunted Harry, he was excited to go back to Hogwarts, a place he had always considered home.

Harry laughed at the memory of Hermione following Ron around the Burrow reading off of a list of reasons why they all needed to finish up at Hogwarts, to each of which Ron responded –_Hermione, we've already saved the world, isn't that good enough?_ Hermione had retrieved her parents from Australia and restored their memories and now she spent half her time with them and half her time at the Burrow. And half the time she spent at the Burrow, she spent with Ron. Harry was extremely happy for his two friends and even though he hadn't quite gotten to rebuild his relationship with Ginny the way he would've liked, they had fallen back into their easy friendship.

Harry decided to put the letters aside for when Ron and Hermione came down later and took a test sip of his coffee to see if it had cooled down enough. Determining that it was safe he took another sip and flipped open the Daily Prophet. He was skimming the headlines of the front page when a small article on the bottom right corner of the front page caught his eye and he promptly spit out a full mouth of coffee.

**Malfoy Heir Dies Tragically Young**

_Draco Lucius Malfoy, only son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, passed away yesterday due to remaining injuries from the war. The family refuses to comment further on the nature of their young son's death but will be holding a small memorial service at their home tomorrow. _

_The Malfoy family is well known… _

The article continued to outline the Malfoy's involvement in the war and the well publicized story of the role they had played in saving Harry's life but Harry stopped reading and continued to stare at the headline in disbelief.

"Hey mate, what's wrong? You look like someone died," Ron said walking into the room, snatching a piece of toast off the platter Mrs. Weasley was lowering onto the table.

"Oh, Hermione, dear! I didn't realize you spent the night here!" Mrs. Weasley said warmly as Hermione followed Ron in looking a bit sheepish.

"Harry, are you all right?" Hermione sat down next to Harry, Ron sitting on her far side. Harry closed his eyes and passed the paper over to Ron and Hermione. They both quickly found the article.

"After all those times we saved his bloody arse he still manages to bite it?"

"Ronald!" Twin cries rang out from Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, accompanied by a swat on the head with a spoon by Mrs. Weasley.

"What? Sorry! I can't exactly say I'm sad to see the ferret gone," Ron said setting the paper down on the table in front of them and continuing to dig into his breakfast.

"No parent should have to lose a child..." Mrs. Weasley said quietly, turning back to the sausages she was preparing on the stove. Hermione nodded her head in agreement and snatched up the paper, voraciously reading the rest of the article.

"Yeah - Malfoy just seemed like such a constant, you know? I figured I'd be dealing with him for the rest of my life. And after all Mrs. Malfoy went through to save him… it just doesn't seem right," Harry said, "I guess the least I could do is show my face at the funeral tomorrow."

"Do you want me to go with you, Harry?" Hermione asked softly.

"No, its fine, thanks 'Mione." Harry replied.

"Ooh! Hogwarts letters are here!" Ron yelled picking up the stack and passing them out, "Feels like a Head Girl badge in this one, 'Mione,"

"Don't tease, Ronald! Give it to me!"

Harry smiled as the mood abruptly changed, Hermione squealing with delight when a shiny new Head Girl badge slid out of her envelope, both boys celebrating when a Quidditch Captain badge slipped out of Harry's.

* * *

Although Draco hadn't expected many people to show up for the funeral, it was still a bit disappointing. The Parkinsons were there, they'd always been close family friends of the Malfoy's and had managed to avoid Azkaban by never officially supporting the Dark Lord. Blaise was there, clasping hands with Pansy who seemed to be the only person who was actually sad, as well as a handful of reporters who were at least being respectful enough to hold off questioning until the end of the ceremony.

"Mother, you should look at least a little more distraught," Draco leaned up and whispered into her parent's ear. The entire world knew what Narcissa had done to save her son; even reporters from _The Quibbler_ might be suspicious if Narcissa didn't shed a single tear at the funeral. A ministry official began to drone on about the waste of life and the beauty of youth while the coffin was slowly lowered into the ground. Draco leaned back, watching the ceremony between her parents' two stiff figures when she caught a small bit of movement out of the corner of her eye.

_Potter…? _He had quietly stridden up to join the small group standing around the grave. Potter watched the ceremony for a moment before surveying the group, his eyes catching on Narcissa who was now, more appropriately, sobbing into Lucius' shoulder. What shocked Draco the most was that Potter actually looked… _sad. _

_Potter shouldn't look sad! He should be having a celebratory pow-wow with Granger and the Weasel! Not standing here looking _sad! For some reason that enraged Draco more than anything else about the pitiful ceremony and she took off back towards the manor as fast as she could in the heeled shoes and constricting pencil skirt her mother had dressed her in that morning.

* * *

Harry was momentarily distracted by the bright flash of blonde hair as a young woman quickly walked away from the small gathering and back towards the imposing manor house in the distance.

_Must be a cousin… I didn't know Malfoy had any cousins, _Harry thought to himself, _there's probably a lot I didn't know about Malfoy. _The ministry official administering the service and been speaking for several minutes now, but Harry hadn't heard a word that had been said, instead lost in his own thoughts. Whatever Malfoy's history, it wasn't right for him to have died this young, that Harry knew for certain. He had lost so many people he loved throughout the years, and so many people he knew, that even losing Malfoy, who had been nothing but an annoyance for most of his years at Hogwarts, brought back the bitter pain of the countless other funerals he had attended.

He was glad the ceremony was being held outside. The Malfoy grounds, although a little unkempt, were beautiful and Harry had no desire to re-enter the dark Manor house and relive yet another set of nightmares from the past year. He already had too many reminders. Whenever he visited Bill and Fleur, he would always go out and spend at least an hour sitting beside the small grave overlooking the ocean. Only recently had Hermione started wearing short-sleeved shirts again and Harry still had a hard time looking at the _mudblood_ carved into her forearm without waves of guilt and revulsion flowing through his body.

The ceremony had ended and the coffin was being covered by handfuls of dirt. Harry briefly acknowledged Lucius and Narcissa, who had noticed his presence, before walking the short distance to the apparition point and returning to the Burrow.

**A/N: *That awkward transition chapter that you don't love but need to have to keep the story moving* Hope it wasn't too awkward for y'all! **

**What to expect next chapter - Grandma Malfoy drops another bomb, school starts and possibly the first H/D interaction!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks again for the follows/favorites/reviews! Definitely great motivation to keep the story rolling! **

**Disclaimer: All of these lovely characters, etc. are the intellectual property of the fabulous J.K. Rowling!**

* * *

Chapter 3

The seamstress flitted about her, pinning and pinching as Draco unsuccessfully tried to contain a sneer.

"Dear, you really shouldn't do that, it will ruin your pretty face," Blanche said as she turned from the rack of clothing she was flipping through with Narcissa. The two women had been a little too enthusiastic when it came to constructing a new wardrobe for Draco, dragging to several high end boutiques in Diagon Alley and in muggle London.

"That's not exactly high on my priority –" she was cut off by the arrival of an older woman with a heavy foreign accent.

"Blanche! Narcissa! 'ow vonderful it is to see you both again," she said as she swooped into the back room of the boutique where the women of the Malfoy family were gathered.

"Jacqueline, it has been too long," Blanche clasped hands with the other woman, exchanging kisses on both cheeks. Jacqueline repeated the gesture with Narcissa, her harsh black hair contrasting sharply with Narcissa's pale locks.

"Ah, and there is no way this beautiful young woman here isn't related to the two of you," She said, turning towards Draco.

"Alexandra Dubois, pleasure to meet you," Draco whirled around proffering a hand. The young seamstress started at the movement, frantically chasing after a pin she had just placed. Draco smiled brilliantly, leaning down to shake the older woman's hand. _Alexandra _–_ a_ _Latin name meaning 'defender of mankind'_ – Draco smiled at the irony of her choice. Dubois was merely a common enough last name to not raise suspicion.

"Yes, a distant relative on my husband's side. Alexandra has decided to transfer to Hogwarts from Beauxbatons this year in order to keep Narcissa and I company during these difficult times," Blanche said, a perfectly timed tear welling up in the corner of her eye.

"Oh, yes, yes, such a tragedy, my deepest sympathies," Jacqueline dramatically dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Draco sneered again and rolled her eyes at her mother over the petite Frenchwoman's back.

"We figured the least we could do was make _Alexandra_ here comfortable, it gets much colder here than in Southern France, as I'm sure you know," Blanche continued, chatting pleasantly with the boutique owner. Jacqueline enthusiastically responded, bonding with Blanche over memories of her home country while Narcissa continued to pick out clothes for Draco.

They left the boutique nearly an hour later, the new wardrobe transported back to the manor along with the rest of their purchases from the day.

"I'm fairly sure that woman didn't even know what 'difficult times' you were referring to," Draco said scathingly, resisting the urge to adjust her bra as they strode down Diagon Alley. After the war, Diagon Alley had bounced back and was now busier than ever before. The Malfoy's kept their heads down and their voices low as they pushed through the crowds, attempting to find an apparition point.

"Most likely, but you can't expect the world to stop turning just because you died, dear," Blanche said curtly.

Despite their attempts to move under the radar, heads turned as Draco walked by. She smirked – she still wasn't completely accustomed to the female aspect of her transformation but the turning of heads was nothing new. Women looked on with jealousy and men just stared with openmouthed admiration.

_School is going to be interesting… _ Draco thought to herself with another small smirk. She wouldn't mind seeing some of the idiots in Gryffindor openly adoring the former "prince of Slytherin." Nearly two weeks ago they had contacted Professor McGonagall, who was now acting Headmistress at Hogwarts, and met with her to explain the situation. She had accepted it with a slightly bemused expression, reminiscent of her predecessor, and made the arrangements for _Alexandra Dubois_ to attend Hogwarts.

The three women reached the apparition point at the entrance to Diagon Alley and apparated back to the manor.

* * *

Lucius sat on the couch and stared into the fire, an empty glass in his hand. He was considering refilling it with whatever was left in the liquor cabinet but couldn't find the energy to lift himself up off of the couch. There was a small pop and he looked up to see the group return.

"Father," Draco said coolly.

"Dra-" Lucius started to say, but stopped, unable to continue, and just nodded. It wouldn't have been so hard to look at him, _her, _if the resemblance wasn't still so strong. She had the figure and hair of a young Narcissa, but the face – the face was still his face. The steely grey eyes and aristocratic nose were things that Lucius had given him – _her, along with this curse. _ He tore his eyes away from Draco as the guilt rose up again and made his way over to the wet bar, sloppily pouring another drink, not even paying attention to the type of liquor.

* * *

Draco walked angrily down the hall away from the study. Every interaction with her father had gone exactly the same way. It had been weeks and he still could hardly make eye contact with her. She went back to her room where house elves were packing the last few purchases from the day away into her school trunk. She ripped the heels off of her feet and threw them on the ground striding over and falling down onto the bed. She'd always yearned for her father's approval, and the lack thereof was the only thing that could immediately crack her carefully constructed façade.

_Bloody hormones_… Draco thought, wiping a few tears of frustration out of her eyes. Although nowhere near the biggest adjustment Draco had to make, she still wasn't used to how much more emotional she got. She was hardly breaking down into tears over every small thing but it was certainly more than she was used to. The biggest adjustment, however, had been dealing with the _monthly problem_ females had. Much to her chagrin _that_ had taken her by surprise and she had run to Narcissa thinking she was dying.

She rolled out of bed and surveyed the remaining items on her nightstand, debating whether or not to pack them. Two genealogy books, one about the great pureblood families of Britain, another specifically about the Malfoy family, were stacked along with another about magical creatures. Neither of the genealogy books had had any mention of the veela woman, although she had found Demetrius Malfoy, the man whom her grandmother claimed had started the entire thing. She hoped to find more in the library at Hogwarts. Next to the three books was a family portrait taken during winter break of her fourth year at Hogwarts. She picked it up and was studying what used to be her face when there was a light knock on the door. She quickly slipped the photo out of the frame and placed it in the trunk.

"Yes?" The door inched open.

"Alex, may I have a word?" Blanche slowly entered the room. Both Blanche and Narcissa had taken to calling Draco by her new alias so it would be easier for her to adjust at Hogwarts.

"Of course," Draco sat down on the edge of her bed, setting the portrait down next to her. Blanche remained standing, her hands laced together.

"I wanted to give you some time to adjust before I…" she paused, unsure of how to continue. A knot grew tight in Draco's chest as Blanche continued to struggle for words. Her grandmother crossed the room and came to sit down next to her.

"What is it?" Draco snapped a little impatiently, more out of anxiety than cruelty.

"It may not be of any significance, given that you are so far removed from the original veela, but… you should be aware that it may become an issue." Blanche took a deep breath -

"Veela require… sexual energy to survive. You may find yourself requiring – intimate – encounters with members of the opposite sex,"

"Intimate… encounters?" Draco inwardly cursed herself for sounding so naïve.

"Yes, well, as I said there is a good chance that it will not be an issue, particularly given your unique situation. But Draco dear," she paused, clasping Draco's slender hands within her own, "you have a chance to start anew, without the taint of the Dark Lord or the past misdeeds of this family. I know it is perhaps not the chance you may have hoped for, but you can craft a new life, you can have a new beginning. Please keep that in mind."

Draco took a deep breath, loosening the knot in her chest and met her grandmother's light eyes –

"A new beginning," she said, smiling at the older woman.

* * *

Her grandmother's words were still in Draco's mind as she made her way across Platform 9 ¾ the next morning. Narcissa and Blanche had accompanied her to Kings Cross but had avoided the platform, instead returning to Malfoy Manor. She stood slightly unsure on the platform, families all around her. Before it was easy to find friends, store her trunk and find a compartment but now…

"Hello! You must be Alexandra, Professor McGonagall asked me to keep an eye out for you. I'm Hermione Granger," Draco jumped at the site of the know-it-all brunette and had to bite off a retort, instead returning the greeting.

"Hello, yes, nice to meet you," she said in a slightly strained voice. _Perhaps a new beginning won't be as easy as grand-m__è__re had hoped, _Draco thought to herself, resisting the urge to wipe her hand on her slacks after shaking Granger's.

"I'm sure this is probably a lot more hectic than you're used to," she said kindly, "You're welcome to come and join my friends and me in our compartment,"

"Like she'd want to," Pansy Parkinson strolled up, looping an arm through Draco's. She started momentarily, but regained composure, smiling falsely. Granger looked as if she had a response on the tip of her tongue but was cut off as Pansy turned around, still arm in arm with Draco.

"Come, we have _so_ much to talk about."

* * *

Harry leaned his head back against the seat as the Hogwarts Express started moving, relieved to finally be alone with just his close friends. Getting on the train had been nearly impossible, despite the fact that the Weasley's had somehow gotten their act together enough in the morning to make it to King's Cross bright and early. On the platform, however, Harry could hardly make it a step without someone stopping him. Young children stared in awe; one woman had even run up and hugged him. Ron soaked up the attention, waving and bowing while Hermione rolled her eyes and attempted to drag Ron away from several girls who were trying to get him to sign their bras. Once they had finally manage to board the train and get their trunks packed away Ron and Hermione had to immediately jump back into the fray, leaving Harry and Ginny alone until Neville and Luna joined them several minutes later.

"It was a bit mad out there, eh, Harry?" Neville said laughingly. The war had had almost a physical effect on Neville; the self-conscious young boy had been transformed into a confident young man who was able to deal quite competently with his own _Heroes of the War _fan club. The _Heroes of the War _had quickly become the most popular weekly column in _The Daily Prophet_ – each week the paper would include a profile of someone who had played an important role in Voldemort's defeat. At Harry's insistence, Neville had been featured right after Ron, Hermione and Harry and the wizarding world, particularly the female sector, had responded quite enthusiastically to "The Boy Who Was _Almost_ the Chosen One."

"Gran grumbles about all the press and attention, but I can tell she likes it, says its about time the Longbottoms got the respect they were due" Neville continued with a small smile. Harry smiled back at Neville, laughing.

"Father's been quite happy to return to chronicling the mating habits of the Jabbing Potcacts, although he liked how many copies your story sold," Luna said in her normal dreamy tone, her eyes focusing somewhere slightly above Harry's head. The only full interview Harry had done had been for _The Quibbler_, in the hopes that, in some small way, he could make up for what Xenophilius had gone through during the war. Ginny leaned over and whispered in Harry's ear –

"_What _in the bloody hell is a Jabbing Potcact?"

"Shouldn't you know to stop asking by now?" Harry said laughingly. Ginny laughed and smiled right back. For one of the first times since the final battle Harry felt totally relaxed, as if everything were finally right in the world.

The door to their compartment slid open and Ron entered, plopping down in the seat next to Harry and greeting Neville and Luna. Hermione followed soon after, a sort of puzzled look on her face.

"Hello, earth to Hermione," Ron said, waving a hand in her face. She swatted his hand away and leaned back, sighing.

"Sorry, I just had the oddest encounter. I met the new transfer student, Alexandra Dubois, and well, its extremely eerie, but she looks _exactly _like Malfoy," Harry felt a small surge of _something_ at the mention of Malfoy's name… _guilt? Sorrow? A premonition?_

"Urgh, a female ferret face? Now that's a scary thought," Ron said, receiving a smack on the leg from Hermione.

"No, Ronald. It wasn't just the looks, it was her mannerisms as well, the way she talked to and acted around me just instantly reminded me of Malfoy," Hermione said, the puzzled look still on her face.

"Did she say anything or call you anything, Hermione? 'Cause if she did I'll get Ginny to beat her up," Ron said, this time receiving a smack on the back of his head from Ginny.

"No, she was very polite, its just…" Hermione trailed off. "She has to be related to him in some way."

"What was her name again?" Harry asked.

"Alexandra Dubois, she's a transfer from Beauxbatons. Apparently her family wanted to keep her closer to home."

"Hmmm… I don't remember seeing her name on the tapestry at Grimmauld Place, and the Malfoys are on there," Harry said, sharing in Hermione's puzzlement.

"Maybe she's an extremely distant relative… genetics are funny that way,"

"Gene –what?" Ron asked.

"Ge-ne-tics, it's the study of how human traits are passed down between generations," Hermione explained, "It's a branch of muggle science that is really quite fascinating,"

Ron continued to look lost as Hermione launched into a complicated explanation of the field of genetics, with the rest of the group occasionally chiming in for questions. They spent the rest of the train ride happily laughing and joking.

* * *

Draco was dragged handily by Pansy all the way onto the train and into an empty compartment where she promptly let go and turned to face her. She remained quiet as Pansy gave her a once over. Anything that Draco might have been about to say was caught in her throat as Pansy said -

"You know Draco, you make a gorgeous woman," she looked up at Draco as if challenging her to contradict her statement.

"But… I'm… How?" Draco stammered. Pansy snorted and crossed her arms, sitting down on the bench across from Draco.

"Contrary to popular belief I am not stupid. I had my suspicions after the funeral, Narcissa was not nearly heartbroken enough, but seeing you today confirmed them. I'm fairly sure I only recognized you because I know you so well; I'm don't believe anyone else would be able to pick up on anything besides the physical resemblance." Pansy said matter-of-factly.

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" Draco asked morosely, nightmares of the world's reaction flashing through her head.

"Draco, you should know me better. You're my best friend, if you're not announcing your sex change to the world then I'm not going to!" She said softly, leaning forward and placing a hand on Draco's knee. "My only question is, how? Given our past relationship, I'm assuming it wasn't voluntary?"

"No… I…" Draco said uncertainly. _I should really give Pansy more credit, _she thought, looking up to see Pansy smirking at her. She swallowed and attempted to speak coherently –

"No, it was most definitely not voluntary," she started, and continued to describe the past few weeks in their entirety. Pansy stayed quiet throughout the entire tale, although Draco could tell she was dying to ask questions.

"Is it permanent?" Pansy blurted out as soon as Draco was finished.

"No, I faked my own death over a temporary ailment," Draco snapped. She took a deep breath and continued –

"According to the information I have right now, yes, it is. But given how little I know…" She trailed off, unwilling to finish that sentence. Although unable to give up completely, she knew life would be much easier if she didn't hang onto the hope that one day she might return back to her original form.

"_Wow_… that blows," Pansy said succinctly. Draco just nodded. "So, what should I call you, I mean, what name are you going by now? Draco_lina?_"

"No! Not _Dracolina," _she said with disgust, "I'm now Alexandra Dubois, a transfer student from Beauxbatons, but Alex is fine."

"Alex, _Alex," _Pansy seemed to mull the name over for a bit, "I think I can do that, _Alex,_" she smiled, addressing Draco.

The door to the compartment slid open and Blaise entered. He briefly greeted Pansy and then his eyes settled on Draco, going wide. She froze, afraid that someone else had recognized her so easily. Instead of saying anything, Blaise gracefully dropped down to one knee and lifted one of Draco's hands, brushing his lips lightly across her knuckles before looking up and saying:

"_Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." _

"Down boy!" Pansy said as she grabbed the back of Blaise's robe, pulling him up into the seat beside her. There was a brief flash of embarrassment in Blaise's face, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

"My apologies, but how else am I supposed to react to such a beautiful woman? Blaise, Blaise Zabini," He said, smiling charmingly and extending a hand. A slight blush on her face, Draco returned the gesture.

"Alexandra Dubois."

"Well, Alexandra, it is truly a pleasure to meet you," he brought their clasped hands once more again to his lips, causing the blush on Draco's cheeks to deepen slightly. Pansy looked torn between breaking out in hysterical laughter and smacking Blaise but settled instead for taking the attention away from Draco by interrogating Blaise about his summer. Draco leaned back, her hand falling limply into her lap, the blush fading from her cheeks.

_This is going to be a long year._

* * *

_**A/N: I know I said there would be some H/D interaction this chapter but I promise it is coming up very very soon! Outside of the obvious *cough cough fem!Draco* I'm trying to keep the characters as canon as possible, but planning on having some fun with some of my favorites (aka Blaise) hope you don't mind!**  
_

**_The quote Blaise uses is from _Romeo and Juliet. _I know JK got a lot of her names and other tidbits from Shakespeare, so I may be borrowing a bit from the great bard as well. _**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry for the update delay - things tend to get busier at work near the end of the week (aka no secretly writing fan fiction in the corner). As always, thanks for the reads/reviews/etc. ! **

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe all belongs to J.K. Rowling - I'm just borrowing it. **

* * *

Chapter Four

The train ride had been surprisingly enjoyable. Draco had spent most of the time reacquainting herself with her two friends. It had also given her a chance to flesh out her back-story. As far as Blaise was aware _Alexandra _had been born in England but sent to foster with an aunt in a small wizarding community outside of Nice in the south of France. She then attended Beauxbatons until her parents had called her home the previous year. Outside of those small details, however, she remained fairly quiet and allowed Pansy to do most of the talking.

The three had just arrived at the front of the school and were following the large crowd of students making their way into the Great Hall when McGonagall walked over.

"Hello, _ah, _Miss Dubois. If you could please follow me," the headmistress said, again with a slightly amused expression. Pansy raised an eyebrow and Draco smirked in return, following Professor McGonagall away from the crowd of students. They entered a small room off to the side of the Great Hall that Draco vaguely recognized from her first year. In the corner the raggedy Sorting Hat sat upon its old stool, for the moment motionless. Draco felt her stomach drop…

"Um… Professor? Am I going to be sorted _again?_" She asked hesitantly.

"Yes, Miss Dubois. I cannot place you in a house without the consent of the Sorting Hat. Now, unless you wish to join the first years getting sorted in the Great Hall shortly, I suggest put the Hat on," McGonagall said with a gesture towards the stool.

Draco sat down on the stool and slowly put the hat on her head. Her first year she had confidently swaggered up to the stool, smirking as the hat yelled 'Slytherin' before even touching her head. This time the hat was silent for several moments before beginning to speak to Draco.

_My, my, I never expected to see you again, Mister – excuse me, Miss Malfoy. _

It took all of Draco's restraint to not rip the hat right off of her head. Instead she grit her teeth and thought back – _Can you please just go ahead and put me in Slytherin? You hardly hesitated last time. _

_ Ah, but so much more has changed since then! I sense a strong desire for a new beginning and a thirst for knowledge – perhaps Ravenclaw would be more appropriate this time around? Or maybe Gryffindor – you've become quite a fighter! _

_ Put. Me. In. Slytherin. _Draco thought forcefully.

_Fine, fine… _the Hat murmured before announcing "Slytherin!" to the nearly empty room. McGonagall nodded and told Draco to go join her house in the Great Hall. Draco left the room quickly, nearly knocking over several of the first years that were lined up right outside. She was slightly unsettled by the Sorting Hat's dissection of her personality.

_Have I really changed that much?_

* * *

Harry slouched down further in his seat, cheeks still flushed as the Sorting Hat finished it's song and large portions of the students were still wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. Before launching into its normal song about the characteristics of the four houses the Hat had composed an extensive ballad recounting the tale of how Harry defeated Voldemort. After running out of things that rhymed with "Potter" the Hat resorted to referring to him by a variety of epithets such as "the raven haired lad."

"Blimey, mate, that was fantastic," Ron said, still chuckling.

"Definitely a positive change from the last few years," Hermione commented, her eyes twinkling.

"Do you think it'll start singing that every year?" Ginny chimed in. She and her brother had been among those laughing the hardest.

"Merlin, I hope not," Harry said, paling.

The Gryffindors continued to chat amicably as the sorting continued, laughing at the nervous first-years and reminiscing over their own sortings. When the sorting ended, Ron picked up his silverware, prepared to dig into dinner but was disappointed as McGonagall stood up and began to talk.

"Hello, welcome and welcome back! It warms my heart to once again be standing in front of a hall full of students at the start of another wonderful year here at Hogwarts. Before we eat, I have one more student to introduce," She gestured towards the Slytherin table as if asking someone to rise, "Miss Alexandra Dubois will be joining the seventh year Slytherin class, please welcome her to Hogwarts."

The polite smattering of applause grew still as the girl rose. Harry's breath caught in his throat and to his right you could almost hear Ron's jaw drop. She was absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful. Although Harry couldn't see her well over the people in between she was still stunning, and he obviously wasn't the only one who thought so. Nearly every boy, and a fair number of girls, in the Great Hall was staring openmouthed at the young woman who returned the admiration with a small smirk and one gracefully arched pale eyebrow.

* * *

Draco stood and surveyed the speechless crowd, the self-satisfied smirk still upon her face. _Now I could get used to this… _ she searched for the one face that would be the icing on the cake and found it, perched between the Weasel and Weaselette. Potter was staring all right, but it was different from the vacant lust filled faces of many of the older boys in the room. Unlike every other boy in the room who seemed to be fixated on her lips or her breasts he was staring straight into her eyes. Not one to back down, Draco stared right back and smiled brilliantly causing Potter to jump and quickly break eye contact.

At some point during her introduction food had risen to the tables but had remained practically untouched for the few moments she was standing. As soon as Draco descended the hall filled with the clatter of fork and knife as well as the sounds of many jealous females. Every single person at the Slytherin table was celebrating their superiority thinking - _of course we got the beautiful transfer student_.

Keeping thoughts of the past at the back of her mind Draco absorbed the attention and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

* * *

Harry pulled himself out of bed early the next morning and quietly made his way out of the castle. The grounds were misty but the sky above was clear, promising a bright fall day. There was smoke rising out of Hagrid's cabin and Harry made a mental note to go visit him later that day.

When he reached his destination he knelt down and placed a hand upon the cool marble. Although he had been part of the planning of the memorial he'd never quite been able to bring himself to visit before. The damage to Dumbledore's grave had been repaired and around the base a plaque had been added where all the names of all those who gave their lives during the Battle of Hogwarts had been engraved. There was another monument at the Ministry of Magic upon which the names of everyone who had lost their lives in the war - muggle, wizard and magical creature alike - were engraved, but this one was far more personal.

_Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks_. Harry ran his fingers over the names carved in stone and thought of Teddy, their son who would never know his parents. He had been by Andromeda Tonk's house to visit Teddy before school started and he smiled at the memory. Andromeda had shown the young boy a picture of Tonks from when her hair was bubblegum pink and Teddy's hair had immediately changed to the same bright pink color and as far as Harry was aware, stayed that way ever since.

Harry's face once again became somber when he came across another name – _Fred Weasley. _George had thrown himself back into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, so much so that his family rarely saw him anymore. _Severus Snape _– Harry had had to fight to have his name placed on the monument despite the fact that his part in Voldemort's downfall. Finishing the list Harry pulled himself to his feet and made his way back inside, pushing back the familiar feelings of sorrow with the thought of the good food and friends that awaited him in the Great Hall.

* * *

"Hey, we were just about to go looking for you!" Ron said as Harry sat down across from him at the Gryffindor table.

"Sorry, woke up early and went for a walk," Harry replied as he started to pile food onto his plate.

"The monument is really beautiful finished, isn't it Harry?" Hermione said softly from her place next to Ron. Harry just smiled and shook his head.

"You know, 'Mione, its a bit scary how well you know me."

"You know you love it," Hermione said teasingly. Ron paused, looking up from his food.

"Should I be worried about this," he said, gesturing to the two of them with his fork.

"Yes, brother dear, you should be worried. Worried about whether Harry's going to be your best man or Hermione's maid of honor at the wedding," Ginny teased, plopping herself down next to Harry. Ron turned red as the rest of the group laughed merrily.

"What? Who said anything about a wedding…" He mumbled, ears bright red. Their laughter was interrupted as McGonagall strolled down the aisle passing out schedules.

"Here you are, Mr. Weasley, Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger," she said, passing them all their respective schedules before moving on. Ron's face paled as he read his schedule.

"Bloody hell! I've hardly got any free periods! Aren't we supposed to get more as seventh years?"

Harry ran his eyes down his own schedule and saw that Ron was correct, he had very few free periods and there even seemed to be a couple new classes on his schedule.

"Hey, Hermione, what are these? I don't remember signing up for new electives," he said gesturing at the two new classes entitled _Healing _and _Combat Magic_.

"Its part of your career path. Honestly, don't you two pay attention to anything?" Both young men simultaneously shook their heads causing Ginny to burst out in giggles. Hermione rolled her eyes and continued.

"Back in fifth year you both decided you wanted to be Aurors, right? So you have to pass enough of your OWLs to get into the NEWT classes and then seventh year you begin to take more specialized electives for your career path."

"So I have to take two more classes on top of all the ones already required to enter Auror training?" Ron said incredulously.

"Don't worry so much, Ronald. They're not as intense because they're not NEWT classes – check your schedule, they should only be once a week."

"Huh… okay," Ron sighed, still looking glum.

"What's your schedule look like, 'Mione," Harry said. Hermione passed the schedule to him and began rummaging around in her bag, checking to make sure she had all the correct books.

"Blimey Hermione, this schedule is nearly as bad as third year!" Harry exclaimed, his eyebrows shooting up. Not only was Hermione still enrolled in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes but she was also signed up for Healing, Combat Magic and a class called Magical Law.

"I'm just… undecided. And at least this schedule doesn't need a time turner!" Hermione said, snatching the schedule back from him. "Come on, we'll be late for Charms if we don't leave soon!"

Harry just shook his head and followed her out the door.

* * *

On the far side of the Great Hall Draco sat slowly sipping a goblet of pumpkin juice and staring at the piece of paper in her hands. Back in fifth year when they'd had their career meetings with their heads of houses she hadn't really thought she'd ever need a career. However, it was expected for Malfoy's to do well academically so she'd managed to pass all of her OWLs, even Care of Magical Creatures and Divination although she dropped both. All she'd wanted was to graduate Hogwarts and take over as head of the Malfoy family.

_Now all I want is to finish school and disappear… _she thought grimacing. _They don't have a class for that_. She'd never once considered a future career and now even making a decision about what career classes she might want to take baffled her.

"Ah, Miss Dubois, have you made your decision yet?" Slughorn said affably, ambling up to her.

"Yes, I believe I have –" She looked frantically down at the list, reading off two at random, "I'll take Healing and Combat Magic," she said passing the slip of paper up to Slughorn.

"Interesting – the Auror path. Have you ever considered becoming an Auror, Miss Dubois?" He said tapping his wand to the paper.

"Definitely not, I don't think they'd want me," she said scowling.

"Ah, well don't count yourself out yet, Miss Dubois!" Slughorn said smiling. He passed the schedule back to her and continued down the aisle. She turned to Pansy who had just sat down across from her.

"What are you taking?"

"Magical Law and History of the Ministry. It's the general Ministry career path," Pansy said with a shrug. "They sound pretty boring but its not like I'm going to be Minister of Magic or anything like that. What about you?"

"Healing and Combat Magic – I just chose at random. I'm still just managing day by day, I can hardly make a career choice just now." Pansy raised an eyebrow in a manner that was reminiscent of Draco herself.

"Combat Magic? That'll be interesting – maybe you can get rid of some of the pent of anger, beat up a couple Gryffindors. You'll probably need the release."

"Why?" Draco asked.

"Have you seen the rest of the schedule? We have double potions and double transfiguration _three _days a week. And Fridays to boot! Its going to be a nightmare!" Pansy said as she grabbed her bag and a piece of toast and began to make her way out of the Great Hall. Draco looked down at her own schedule as she followed her out and grimaced when she saw that Pansy was speaking the truth.

* * *

The first half of the day passed quickly for Draco, particularly given the immense amount of knowledge the professors seemed to be trying to impart. There was no longer any sort of transition period from summer to the school year like there had been in past years. Also, in order to accommodate the half of the seventh year class that hadn't come to Hogwarts at all the past year there was just as much review homework as there was new material. She walked out of Transfiguration stuffing the notebook back into her already full bag and shuddered at the thought of how much work she had to do.

She paused in the hall and struggled with the large across the shoulder strap. She'd never had a problem wearing one of these before but now the bag seemed to always slip off her small shoulder and there was nowhere to put the strap but between her breasts, which caused a fair number of stares she would've rather avoided. A group of third year boys heading into McGonagall's classroom had all stopped and were staring at her struggles. As she was giving them a venomous glare she suddenly felt the weight of the bag lift off her shoulder.

"Let me help you with that," Blaise said, grabbing the bag and continuing to move down the hallway.

"No! Its fine, I had it under control!" She ran after him, attempting to grab the bag back but he just lifted it higher and higher until she couldn't hope to reach it. Blaise had been taller than her before but now she only reached the middle of his chest. She gave up and crossed her arms across her chest with a huff. Blaise slung the bag across his chest on top of his own and smiled down at her.

_What is this…_ Draco thought, as a rush of warmth seemed to fill her from her stomach up to her cheeks, which were tinted a light shade of pink. She looked up at Blaise again and actually found herself admiring his easy smile and smooth olive skin. _Was I just checking out _Blaise!

She spent the rest of the walk to the dungeons silent and once they reached the potions classroom she quickly grabbed the bag back from Blaise and went to sit by Pansy, cheeks still slightly flushed.

"What did Blaise do this time?" Pansy asked teasingly.

"Nothing…" Draco murmured, not looking at Pansy as she began to pull out her books.

"Wait… you're blushing! That's what that is, I hadn't even thought to ask… do you like blokes now?" Pansy said with a twinkle in her eye.

"What? No! I don't know… shhh!" Draco sputtered, smacking Pansy lightly on the shoulder. Pansy looked as if she was about to ask more but Slughorn began to speak, saving Draco from Pansy's interrogation.

"Now don't unload everything yet!" Slughorn exclaimed jovially. "Given that most of the brews we will be concocting this year take much longer than just a class period and will often require maintenance outside of class hours I will be pairing you each with someone whose potion making skills should complement your own!" The entire class groaned audibly.

"Only Slughorn would be barmy enough to do assigned partners in a mixed house class!" Pansy snarled.

"Okay, here we go – Parkinson and Macmillan, Granger and Weasley…" there were groans of dislike from both Pansy and Ernie Macmillan and squeals of delight from Granger and Weasley. Draco looked around in a panic, not many students had made it to NEWT level Potions to begin with and the class was even smaller now…

"Ah, yes, Miss Dubois, since I didn't know much about your potions skills I decided to pair you with my star student – Mr. Potter!" Slughorn smiled at her as if she had just won the lottery but Draco paled. She gathered up her books and moved to the empty stool next to Potter.

"Hi, I'm Harry," he said sticking a hand out in greeting.

"I know who you are, _Potter," _Draco kept her arms crossed and looked disdainfully down at the extended hand. A spasm of annoyance crossed his face and she allowed herself a small triumphant smile as she turned back towards the front of the classroom.

* * *

The rest of the potions class passed in near silence for the pair. They only exchanged the most minimal of comments, and most of these were corrections on Dubois' part. At first Harry had been mildly annoyed by her cold demeanor but now he found it almost amusing. He looked up from the root he was chopping and studied the girl sitting next to him.

She had her blonde hair pulled back, exposing a small un-pierced ear and graceful jawline. Her brow was furrowed she was pouting slightly as she precisely counted the strokes of the spoon. The heat of the cauldron was making her sweat slightly and she kept trying to push back the small pieces of hair that stuck to her face. Even slightly disheveled from a long Potions class she was still beautiful – _even Fleur might be threatened, _Harry thought with a laugh. The laugh caught Dubois' attention and she turned and glared at Harry.

"What are you staring at, Potter? Get back to –" she looked down at the cutting board in front of Harry and quickly looked back up, her face livid.

"Are you _completely_ incompetent, Potter? Those are supposed to be _slivered, _not sliced!" Harry looked down at the cutting board, unfazed.

"What's the difference?"

"You're a seventh year NEWT Potions student, and you don't know the difference between slivered and sliced?" she asked incredulously, pulling the spoon out of the cauldron and smacking it down on the table. Harry just laughed. Even just a year or two ago her obvious disdain would've annoyed him to no end, but now it was just amusing.

"What?" she said harshly.

"Well, its just I've been a little busy the past couple years, haven't quite had the time to look up the difference between slivered and sliced," he said jokingly. She didn't respond, just looked at him as if torn between laughter and continuing the scolding. Instead she just huffed and grabbed the knife out of Harry's hand, carefully _slivering_ what was left of the root.

Several minutes later Slughorn stopped the class, reminding them all to set their cauldrons in the back of the classroom and leave them on simmer for the next 48 hours. Dubois began to quickly pull her stuff back into her bag but Harry stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait – if we're going to be working together all year _Dubois _and _Potter_ seem a little formal. What can I call you?" he asked. She hesitated a moment on the edge of her seat but eventually answered.

"You can call me Alex," she said looking at him with clear gray eyes.

"Okay, Alex" he said, smiling. She started slightly at the sound of her name, eyes narrowing.

"But don't expect me to call you Harry!"She exclaimed, quickly making her way out of the classroom.

* * *

**A/N: We have first contact! A chapter late, but what can I say? The story takes on a mind of its own once I start writing. **

**Next Chapter - We'll find out what the school thinks of it's beautiful new transfer student. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Woah - twice in one day! I guess this is what happens when I give myself a lazy Sunday. Hope you enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Everything and anything Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling. **

* * *

Chapter Five

"Hey, Alex, slow down!" Draco slowed and allowed Pansy to catch up with her. She'd been so flustered at the end of Potions she'd left as quickly as possible, not even turning the right way out of the classroom.

"So, what'd he do?" Pansy asked.

"What did who do?"

"Oh come on, Draco-" Draco jumped and slapped a hand over Pansy's mouth.

"Shhh!"

Pansy rolled her eyes and peeled the hand off.

"Calm down, there's no one here!" Draco glanced up and down the hallway and realized she was right.

"Still…" Draco said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the dungeon wall.

"As I was saying – the only person who can get under your skin like that is Potter. So, what did he do?"

_What did Potter do…_ Draco thought ruefully. It wasn't anything he had _done_; it was only how she had reacted. When she'd caught him staring at her she'd _blushed_. And then when he had said her name… she rubbed her arms remembering the way her entire body had broken out in goose bumps at the sound of it. _And its not even my real name… _

"Nothing… he didn't do anything. I'm just…" She pressed her fingers to her temples and closed her eyes.

"Hey, hey," Draco felt Pansy's light hands on her shoulders, "I'm sorry I teased you about Blaise earlier – I know this has to be hard for you."

Draco brought her hands down from her temples and looked back up at Pansy, a small smile on her face. She pushed herself off the wall and began to make her way out of the dungeons

"I knew the veela aspect would cause guys to be attracted to me, I just hadn't ever considered…" she said, shaking her head.

"Come one, you don't have to figure this out right away. Lets go get dinner."

* * *

Harry walked into the common room and joined the group of the Gryffindor seventh years around the main fireplace. Hermione was the only one who looked calm as she flipped through an Ancient Runes textbook. Ron, Seamus and Dean were crouched around a small box, anxious expressions on all of their faces.

"So this'll help me get my work done faster, yeah?" Ron asked Seamus from his place next to Hermione.

"Yup," the Irishman nodded vigorously, "Got it from me mate who graduated a couple years back, said it was the only way he made it through NEWT year."

"Give that here," Hermione extended a hand and Ron passed the vial over to her. "Really? This is just pumpkin juice with some coloring!"

"What! That bastard. How am I going to do this then, eh? I think they're trying to kill us with all this work." Seamus paled. Hermione just snorted and went back to her book while the rest of the group, sharing in Seamus' anxiety, frantically got to work.

About twenty minutes later Neville walked in and collapsed in the last free armchair. He was covered from head to toe in dirt and seemed close to passing out.

"Blimey, Neville, what the bloody hell happened to you?" Dean asked, looking up.

"I'm helping Professor Sprout manage the greenhouses this year. We were trying to prune the Whomping Willow." He said, spreading his arms wide so they could see the cuts and bruises. Seamus let out a low whistle.

The productive mood now lost, Ron threw down the essay he was writing and turned towards Harry.

"So mate, what's she like?"

"What… who?" Harry asked looking up.

"The new girl, Dubois! What's she like?" Seamus heard the name Dubois and turned to Harry and Ron.

"Wait – you had a class with her Harry? I bet she's even better up close," Seamus said with a crude gesture towards his chest. Hermione slammed her book shut and glared at Seamus who dropped his hands in his lap.

"I dunno… its like 'Mione said, she kind of reminds me of Malfoy." Harry said with a shrug.

"Well that's a mood killer…" Ron sighed, leaning back on the couch.

"She acts the same way, all high and mighty, but it doesn't really annoy me now. Its actually kind of… cute."

"Well, I'm glad at least one of you has matured," Hermione said stiffly, scooting away from Ron. The other boys laughed as Ron frantically tried to apologize, note even sure what he had done wrong.

Harry returned to the chapter he was trying to read with a small smile on his face. He didn't know quite what to think about Alexandra Dubois but he was definitely intrigued.

* * *

Alexandra Dubois was the talk of the school for the next several days. The Slytherin's walked around smugly and the girls in every house looked on with envy whenever she walked by. For once the school's attention was on someone other than Harry and for that he was extremely grateful.

Harry finished pulling on his quidditch practice uniform and made his way down to the common room to meet Ron and Hermione before heading to their Combat Magic class. When they reached the classroom everyone was standing around in small groups. There were no desks or chairs, just a couple of white circles drawn on the ground. Harry was slightly surprised to see Alex standing in the corner of the classroom with Blaise Zabini, he wouldn't have guessed that she'd be into combat magic.

There was a slam as the door was thrown wide open and a tall dark haired man stalked in. He stood in the middle of the classroom and surveyed the students standing around him. Harry recognized the man from his many meetings with the Auror department, and when the man had circled around to where he was standing with Hermione and Ron he nodded at Harry in recognition.

"Name's Smith and that's what you will call me. Not 'professor,' not 'mister,' just Smith. I work with the Auror department at the Ministry and have volunteered to teach this class. Normally this class is a lot smaller, but it seems that after some first hand experience you all are a little more interested," Smith said with a slightly feral smile.

"Now, the key to winning any fight is reacting fast and predicting your opponents move. The best way to learn how to do that is by fighting. Plain, old, muggle-style brawling. So I'm going to pair you off with someone about your same size and I want you to line up outside of one of the circles."

Harry was paired off with Theodore Nott, a burly Slytherin who seemed extremely excited to have a chance to beat up on Harry. They both entered the circle and waited for instructions. Across the room Alex was facing off against a tall Ravenclaw girl and Zabini was across from Ron.

"Rules are simple – no magic, no wands. Fight ends when someone's down, they give up or they step outside the circle. The circles are enchanted so that no blows will actually impact but a well-placed punch can still do some damage. Now go!"

Nott rushed at Harry but he stepped to the side, easily avoiding the juggernaut. Harry had spent his entire childhood avoiding Dudley's fists; it was easy to duck Nott's clumsy blows. The flash of a blonde ponytail across the room distracted him momentarily. Alex was gracefully avoiding the taller Ravenclaw girl's punches, employing the same tactic Harry was. His attention was brought back to his own fight as one of Nott's punches connected. It was an odd sensation; the fist didn't hit him but stopped a couple inches in front of his chest. However, he still felt the force of the blow and stumbled back. Pushing himself back onto his feet he looked up at Nott who was smirking above him.

"Never thought you'd be one to be distracted by a pretty face, Potter," Nott said sneeringly before charging Harry again. This time around Harry focused on his own fight and it wasn't long before Nott lost his balance and fell out of the circle.

"Good job Potter, but eventually you'll have to strike back," Smith said with a clap on Harry's shoulder. He nodded and moved around until he had a good view of Alex's fight. Her lips were curved up in a smile as the Ravenclaw girl got more and more frustrated, her ponytail whipping around as she turned and ducked another ill-placed blow. Her eyes lit up as the Ravenclaw girl charged forward. She dropped down and extended a leg catching the girl at the ankles causing her to topple forward out of the circle. Harry had to admire her skill; she obviously had some experience. Alex stood back up and swaggered over to Blaise, who had long ago finished his fight with Ron. Blaise pulled a couple of coins out of his pocket and dropped them into Alex's open hand.

"Hey! Harry, come on, Hermione's fighting!" Ron said gleefully, dragging Harry over to the circle where Hermione was standing across from a Hufflepuff girl, both of them looking unwilling to make the first move.

* * *

Draco left Combat Magic with a triumphant grin on her face, the profits from her bet with Blaise jangling in the pocket of her robes. She made her way out to the main courtyard and sat down next to Pansy who was sitting working on some homework.

"How was _History of the Ministry_," Draco asked teasingly.

"_Awful_," Pansy said dramatically, "The professor is some ancient bloke from the Ministry who forgets what he's talking about every five minutes and he assigned us an essay on the purpose and goals of the Ministry. I thought these classes were supposed to be easy! What about Combat Magic?"

"It was great," Draco said with a smile. Her father had trained her in all manners of combat when she was a child, going up against a complete novice, even without magic, had been easy. "I made a few galleons off of Blaise – he didn't believe I could beat Lisa Turpin without a single blow."

"Oooh, exchanging money? You two are progressing fast - that's step three in building a relationship according to Witch Weekly," Pansy said turning her textbook towards Draco to show the magazine within.

"Please Pansy, I know Blaise a little to well for that. And don't you have an essay to write?" Draco snarled, snatching the magazine out of the textbook and tossing it away.

* * *

The entire seventh year class at Hogwarts found themselves buried in an almost interminable amount of homework within the first couple weeks of school. There was the NEWT coursework, the NEWT review work and the homework for their electives. Thankfully Combat Magic didn't have any homework but Draco still had an immense amount of reading to do for the rest of her classes. To top it all off she had a pounding headache that nothing seemed to help.

She entered Potions on Wednesday and sat down next to Potter, placing her head in her hands.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked. She jumped up, nearly falling off of her stool.

"Yeah. Yes, I'm fine. You don't have to yell!" She snapped.

"Are you sure? Do you need to go see Madame Pomfrey?"

"No. I'm fine – lets just get this done. We should be able to finish this today." They continued to work in silence, more or less the same way they had for the past couple of weeks. Harry had tried multiple times to chat with her about something other than potions but she had thrown up walls every time, much to his annoyance.

Draco's headache and Potter's concern made making any progress on their potion nearly impossible. The classroom had completely emptied by the time their potion turned the requisite shade of pearlescent grey. Potter bottled it up and placed the vial on Slughorn's desk while Draco packed up her things and made her way out of the classroom, head still pounding.

"Alex!" Draco ignored him, continuing to move down the hallway.

"Alex, I really think you should go see Madame Pomfrey." She tried to keep moving but the world was spinning slightly and she started tipping to the side.

Alex – wait!" Potter reached out and grabbed her lightly by the arm.

Next thing she knew she was pressed up against the wall, their bodies flush. His hands were on either side of her head and she could feel his heart pounding rapidly against her own. Both she and Potter were frozen for several moments, breath coming in short pants. She looked up and met his eyes, which were mere inches from her own. His green eyes were slightly clouded and unfocused but cleared as she looked up into them. He seemed to realize what he had done and frantically released her, backing across the corridor, not saying anything. Draco remained frozen against the wall for several moments before taking off down the hallway.

She didn't realize it until later, but her headache had completely disappeared.

* * *

Harry was absolutely shocked. He didn't know what he had done or how it had happened. He remembered seeing Alex stumbling slightly and when he reached out to catch her it had felt like an electric shock. Next he knew he had her pinned up against the wall. He remembered the feel of her body soft beneath his and the look in her eyes - shock and a little bit of _fear. _

He'd wanted to chase after her, to apologize, to explain, but he couldn't seem to move away from the middle of the hall. His heart was still pounding as he leaned back against the opposite wall of the corridor, running a hand through his messy hair.

"Harry? Is that you?" he heard Hermione's voice echoing down the corridor. "I wanted to come down and see if you two needed any help finishing."

Harry pushed himself off the wall, attempting to compose himself.

"And then I saw Alexandra running away – is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. We finished a few minutes ago…" Harry trailed off making his way down the corridor, meeting Hermione at the far end of the hallway. She didn't question him any further but placed a soft hand on his arm as they headed out of the dungeons.

* * *

Friday morning Draco's headache was back. She struggled through her classes gratefully collapsing in a soft chair in the Slytherin common room after dinner. Potions had been particularly difficult. Potter kept trying to apologize but how could he apologize for something that was her fault? She knew it had something to do with her veela heritage and it scared her. What scared her even more was that she had _liked_ the feel of Potter's body pressed against her own.

"Wooooo-hoo! Time to start the party!" Theodore Nott barged into the common room with a handle of Firewhiskey in each fist. "Come on, clear out kids!" He set the two bottles down on a table in the corner and the older students began to crowd around while the younger ones gathered their things and headed to their rooms.

Draco groaned as things started to get loud and rambunctious, her quiet evening in the common room ruined. The group started taking shots and someone turned on music. Before long it was a full blown party. She tried to get up and escape to her dormitory but her head was pounding worse than before and she couldn't seem to hold herself up.

"Hey, Alex, are you okay?" Pansy's face swam in front of her, concerned. She looked past her at the group of people dancing in the center of the room. Her head throbbed once more and then everything steadied. Although the headache had faded she felt detached, as if someone else was steering her body. The room seemed brighter, the colors richer and she felt a rush of power, as if everything she'd ever wanted was right there within her reach.

"Yeah, I'm great!"

"Are you sure you're okay, you're kind of glowing," Draco looked down at her hands, which were indeed emitting a soft silvery light.

"Brilliant! Lets go dance," Draco said as she pulled Pansy towards the center of the room. Pansy looked confused but followed her into the crowd. The beat was fast and Draco soon lost herself in the music, dancing with Pansy. She caught the eye of a boy across the room – a sixth year whose name she couldn't remember. Pushing through the crowd she made her way over to him. She heard Pansy calling her name but ignored it.

"Hey," she said, grabbing the boy's hands and placing them around her slim waist. She put her own arms around his neck and pulled her body closer to his, rocking with the rhythm of the music. He quickly became aroused and Draco pressed her body closer, grinding her hips against his. A small voice in the back of her head was wondering what she was doing but she ignored it, placing her lips against his pulse point and teasing his skin with her tongue. He let out a groan and dug his fingers deeper into her waist, nearly bucking against her. She quickly moved her lips up, placing them on his and kissing deeply, silencing the small part of herself that was screaming at her to stop.

* * *

**A/N: Slight cliffhanger! What's happening to Draco? What is she doing? How far will she go? **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: As always I really appreciate the feedback! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter Six

Draco woke to the first rays of bright morning sunlight shining through the crack in the curtains surrounding the bed. She luxuriously stretched, cracking open her eyes slightly, perched on the line between sleep and waking when memories of the previous night started to flash through her mind.

_Oh Merlin – what did I do?_

She sat up swiftly, looking around. She was in her own bed, alone, which was a good start given what she remembered. She took a deep breath and tried to recall more but the entire night was a blur. She couldn't seem to keep any image in her mind for more than a few seconds. She remembered dancing with Pansy and then dancing with someone else… a guy.

Her breath caught in her throat and her cheeks flushed as she remembered more clearly what had happened after that. She'd danced with him, making him_ hard _and then she'd… she'd…

_Oh Merlin – I made out with a bloke! _A guy whose name she didn't even know! She hadn't ever been the nicest person but she would never have taken advantage of someone like that. She felt a wave of nausea and she made her way quietly to the bathroom. Leaning her forehead against the cool tile wall she tried to remember what happened after that… she remembered what she had _wanted_ to happen then…

_Her hands moved from his neck, running down the front of his chest unbuttoning as she went. She pushed her tongue into his willing mouth, running it along his upper lip while stroking the skin under his shirt. His hands had made their way under her shirt as well and she reached down to get to work on his belt buckle. _

She blanched, looking up at her pale face in the mirror a disbelieving look upon her face. She splashed some water on her face and tried desperately to remember what had come next.

_She had sensed someone's presence next to them but ignored it, focusing on the moans coming from the boy and the mechanism of the belt buckle. Then there were hands on her shoulders, pulling her away and she saw Blaise and Pansy. _

_ "Sorry, mate, this one's mine tonight," she'd heard Blaise say. The boy looked a bit dazed but consented. Blaise and Pansy led her off to the edge of the room, both with concerned looks on their faces. She saw Pansy's lips moving but couldn't hear what she was saying. Their faces seemed to swim a bit and then everything went black. _

Draco was burning with shame and confusion and it felt like the bathroom was suffocating her. She quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a jumper and made her way out of the castle. It was a cold morning but the chill air felt good on her warm face. It was still early enough that the grounds were deserted and probably would be for several more hours. She made her way to a place on the far side of the Black Lake where a small outcropping of rock hung out over the water. She'd spent plenty of time there her sixth year at Hogwarts; it was the only place where she could escape the fear and pressure.

When she reached the spot she sat down on the damp ground, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in them. She let the tears come, welling out of the corners of her eyes, hot even against her already burning skin. First she'd been thrown unwillingly into this new body and now she couldn't even control it. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps.

"Come here to be alone?" She heard Potter ask. She nodded, not lifting her head from its position buried in her arms.

"Me too," he said as he sat down next to her.

"Not really accomplishing that by staying here," She said scathingly, looking up from her lap at the young man next to her.

"Maybe I was hoping you'd get uncomfortable enough to get up and leave," he said with a smile.

"I was here first!" she retorted, earning a chuckle from the dark haired boy. They continued to sit in silence, staring out at the lake. Draco rubbed the tears from her eyes and rested her chin upon her knees looking sideways at Potter. He'd changed a lot since their previous days at Hogwarts. He still had the lithe build of a seeker but he was no longer scrawny and underfed. He also seemed more at peace with himself than he had ever been before and she envied that.

It was Harry who broke the silence first.

"Look, Alex, about the other day-" she cut him off.

"Don't worry about it,"

"Are you sure? I don't know what came over me. I-"

"Really. If that was the most traumatic thing that had happened to me this week I would not be out here right now,_" _she said darkly. Harry seemed unsure how to respond but he reached forward and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. He let out a relieved sigh.

"Phew – I'm glad something like that doesn't happen every time I touch you," he gave her shoulder a squeeze and placed his hand back on the ground. She snorted derisively.

"Don't get your hopes up, Potter," He let out a bark of laughter and looked back at her with an easy smile. She felt the corners of her mouth turn up and quickly looked forward at the lake.

"Why are you here, Potter?" she asked quietly.

"Couldn't sleep," he said simply. "You?"

"None of your business," she said with a sneer.

"You're kind of a brat, you know that?" he said with a smile. Draco felt the corners of her mouth turn up again and this time she didn't stop it.

"Yes – I'm really quite proud of that, in fact." Draco said laughingly. Harry rolled his eyes and Draco laughed even harder. She stood up and stretched, looking back down at Potter who was still sprawled on the ground. She smiled once more at him before walking away.

"Thanks, Potter."

* * *

Harry watched Alex walk away around the edge of the lake, letting out a sigh of relief. After whatever had happened on Wednesday he was worried that he'd permanently damaged their relationship. He didn't realize until now how much he cared what she thought about him.

_She should laugh more often, _he thought looking back out over the lake remembering how her entire face had lit up. And even though he had come out here to be alone finding her had eased his mind more than being alone would have.

The dreams had been coming less frequently but he still spent a fair number of nights waking in the middle of reliving the darkest moments of the war. The night before he'd been in the pond in the forest again, the chain dragging him down and in the dream Ron never showed up, he'd felt the frigid water entering his lungs, the last thought in his mind that he had failed everyone he loved. It was that thought that had him up early, standing at the edge of the Black Lake reminding himself that he had won. He hadn't failed.

He took a deep breath and made his way back inside.

* * *

Draco made her way back to the Slytherin dorms where her roommates were all still asleep, probably recovering from the Firewhiskey the night before. She paused to grab a scrap of parchment and something to write with before heading up to the owlery. It was about as far away from the Slytherin dorm as anything could be in the castle and by the time she made it up there the sun was high in the sky and the fog had cleared. She sat down on the steps and scratched out a quick letter.

_Grand-m__è__re, _

_ I need to know everything. No more secrets. _

_ Draco _

She then rolled it up and sent it off with one of the school owls. She paused at the window watching the owl fly off until it was just a speck. She'd suspected before that her grandmother knew more about what was happening to her than she had told Draco but she hadn't really wanted to know. Now she needed to know. She needed to know exactly what veela magic was and what veela blood meant and why she had lost control of her own body the night before.

"Hey," Pansy's voice came from the entrance to the small room. Draco turned around to see her leaning against the entryway. She flushed slightly.

"Hey, how did you know I was here?"

"I saw you grabbing parchment and a quill in the dorm, wasn't hard to put it together," Pansy said with a shrug, walking across the room. She stopped in front of Draco and there was a moment of awkward silence. Draco looked down, trying to find something to say.

"About last night… thanks, I guess, I don't know what came over me," She stammered, looking up.

"You don't have to thank me, it was pretty obvious you weren't yourself. I came up here to make sure you were okay," Pansy said with a soft smile.

"I obviously don't give you enough credit."

"No, you don't. I'm a really good friend," Pansy said matter-of-factly, but with a teasing smile.

"Yeah… I'm sure I'm the talk of the dorm, though. That's going to be fun." She said sarcastically.

"Honestly, nobody really remembers last night – I think Teddy put something in the Firewhiskey. I only had a shot and everything's still a little fuzzy."

"What about the guy I –" she grimaced, unable to say anything further.

"He thinks it was a dream, I heard him talking about it to his mates this morning, wishing he hadn't woken up."

"Wow – that's some hard core booze." Draco said amazed and extremely relieved.

"Yup. Do you know what happened? I mean, why you did that?"

"No – that letter was to my grandmother. I think its pretty obvious there's more she didn't tell me." She said, shaking her head.

* * *

Sunday afternoon found Harry on the quidditch pitch watching as nearly the entirety of Gryffindor house lined up on the field. It was worse than tryouts his sixth year at Hogwarts - there weren't even enough brooms to go around. He divided them up into groups and had them flying laps around the pitch in phases. The third group took off but most of them were watching Harry instead of where they were flying and there was a pile-up about halfway around the pitch. He groaned.

"What did you expect, Harry? You are Hogwart's number one bachelor," Ginny said teasingly after completing her run around the pitch.

"Wait…what?" Harry said, keeping his eyes on the few members of the third group that had managed to say on their brooms.

"Yeah, mate. I'm taken, so you're next on the list," Ron said from his place next to Harry.

"Please, Ronald. You were never even _on _the list," Ginny said. The siblings continued to argue playfully while Harry sent away nearly two thirds of the third group of fliers and signaled the last, which was mostly comprised of first years that had never been on a broom before in their lives.

After a couple more exercises he'd narrowed it down to about twenty players, including the entire team from his sixth year. A few of the new players were promising, particularly a second year that was almost as fast on a broom as Harry was, but this year it looked like the team wasn't going to change very much. He set up a scrimmage and went to go watch in the stands with Hermione.

"I'd never thought I'd say this, but I actually missed quidditch," Hermione said with a smile.

"Wow – coming around are you, 'Mione?"

"You're still not going to get me on a broom anytime soon, but yes, I am enjoying watching. Ron seems to be playing really well." She was right. Ron was playing brilliantly, blocking every single shot taken by the chasers. Harry was tempted to start singing _Weasley is Our King _just to test him but decided against it.

* * *

"Hey, Alex!" Draco turned to see Blaise walking up to her in the Slytherin common room. She knew he remembered her little loss of control from Friday evening and had been avoiding him most of the weekend.

"Alex – Pansy told me everything, its okay!" He said, chasing her out into the hallway. She froze and turned around, pulling Blaise into an empty classroom.

"_What _did Pansy tell you?" she said forcefully, eyes blazing.

"She told me about your veela heritage," Blaise said slowly.

"And that's it?"

"Yes? Well – she told me that was why you were acting so strangely on Friday, but I figured that out on my own. I mean, why would you want Morgan when you have me at your disposal," he said, smiling widely. Draco laughed sharply and grabbed his arm, leading them out of the classroom.

"You wish!"

* * *

Tuesday morning a beautiful white owl swooped into the Great Hall depositing a thick letter down in front of Draco. Briefly checking the front she tucked it away into her bag.

"Response from your Grandmother?" Pansy asked from across the table. Draco nodded and slipped away from the table. She ducked into an empty classroom and sat down in one of the desks, opening the letter and beginning to read.

_Dearest Draco, _

_First I must apologize for not being completely honest with you. My only desire was to protect you from any more pain than you have already suffered in your young life. From the day of your birth your parents and I have only wished for you to be happy. Although I do not know what prompted your sudden letter it pains me to think that you may have suffered because of my actions._

_The Malfoy family has kept detailed records of all of the occasions in which the veela blood has manifested. I have kept them to myself to protect the Malfoy name. There are a number of ways in which the veela magic may manifest. You need to be careful to not let your emotions get out of hand as that can lead to even the simplest of spells magnifying to the point of doing harm. _

_As I mentioned before you left veela require sexual energy to survive. In the previous cases where the veela heritage has manifested in a male member of the Malfoy family they were, understandably, reluctant to accept this aspect of their transformation. _

_However, there are consequences to ignoring this aspect of your veela heritage. I do not know what you have experienced so far but it seems that if you do not voluntarily engage in intimate relations the veela magic may take control seeking out an energy source. However, if the veela cannot find a suitable energy source it can be fatal. _

_I've included the accounts of the previous instances that are similar to your own so you can see if there is anything that may help you within them. _

_I hope that you can forgive me and ask that you take care of yourself. _

_Yours truly, _

_Blanche Malfoy_

Draco reread the letter twice, letting the words sink in. She was tempted to laugh – she had to have "intimate relations" to survive? It was almost too ridiculous to believe. If Blanche had told her before the past week she wouldn't have believed it. Now… now she was just angry.

"_Incendio!" _

She dropped the burning letter onto the ground of the classroom and stormed out as the clock chimed indicating the beginning of classes.

One corner of the parchment broke away from the rest escaping the flame. It floated down onto the desk landing next to a small bug.

* * *

Harry rushed into class late sitting down in the first available seat. Hermione looked back from her place in the front of the classroom, shooting Harry a reproving glance. He smiled and shrugged, pulling out his notebooks and attempting to figure out what Madame Pomfrey was talking about. Her class had been far more interesting than Harry had expected. Healing was an intersection of nearly all the subjects they'd taken at Hogwarts. It required an extensive knowledge of Herbology and Potions as well as Transfiguration and Charms skills. Harry already had great respect for Madame Pomfrey given the amount of time he had spent in the hospital wing but as he realized how complex healing really was he came to respect her even more. In the past few lectures they'd covered basic anatomy and were moving on to the less tangible aspect of healing.

"Diagnostics is often not as simple as it may seem – certainly there are spells and potions that can diagnose specific disorders but often a magical illness or ailment cannot be diagnosed by these means. In order to –" she was interrupted as the door swung open again. This time it was Alex who entered, sitting down heavily next to Harry.

"Thank you for joining us, Miss Dubois." Alex looked up and nodded. "As I was saying – oftentimes in order to diagnose someone it is necessary to put yourself in their shoes, so to speak. Today we will be practicing a simple spell that will allow you to feel what a patient is feeling – both physical and emotional – to a lesser degree. It's a wonderful tool when the patient is unconscious or unable to talk."

While Madame Pomfrey continued to lecture on the benefits of the spell they were going to use Harry looked over at Alex.

"Now pair off with whoever is sitting next to you and take turns casting the spell on each other. In order to confirm that the spell is working I want you all to focus on one singular emotion, if your partner is correct in identifying the emotion the spell was most likely successful. Now get to work!"

"I guess I'll go first?" Harry said turning towards Alex. She just shrugged and leaned back in her chair. Her eyes were stormy but her face was completely neutral. Harry cast the spell and was hit by a wave of emotion – anger, sadness, fear, loneliness – that was gone as quickly as it came.

"Um… I'm not sure it worked. Were you focusing on one emotion?" Harry asked.

"Why don't you try again?" Alex said, glaring darkly at him. Harry hesitated briefly, but his curiosity won out and he cast the spell again. This time he was hit by a wave of pure, unadulterated rage. It burned through him. He wanted to scream, he wanted to break things – and then it was gone. He looked up at Alex, whose face was still shockingly neutral, lost for words.

"My turn." She cast the spell before Harry had a chance to say anything and it was like being hit in the gut. Every emotion he'd ever felt flashed by. It was like someone was inside his mind, reading his every thought, hope and dream. It was agonizing. As quickly as it had come on, it stopped. He blinked a couple times his eyes focusing and looked up at Alex. She looked terrified, glancing between her wand and Harry. This time Harry recognized the fear for what it really was – she wasn't afraid of him, _she was afraid of herself._


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks for all the reads and reviews! Keep 'em coming, the feedback is great! **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter Seven

Alex stood up violently and began to back away. Her legs got tangled up in the chair and she tumbled to the ground. Harry jumped out of his chair and leaned down to check on her but she scooted back, pushing herself back up to her feet and running out of the classroom.

"Alex! Alex – wait!" Harry yelled, following her out of the classroom.

"Miss Dubois! Mr. Potter!" He heard Madame Pomfrey's voice behind him but he ignored it, instead following Alex down the hallway. When he caught up to her she was sobbing.

"I'm sorry… I'm _so _sorry," she cried, looking up at him.

"Shhh… its okay. Its okay," he said, pulling her close to him. She buried her face in his chest.

"I never knew… I never knew…" she murmured as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her while she continued to cry softly.

* * *

When Draco had cast the spell time slowed. She knew she hadn't physically changed location but the room had disappeared and she was in a small dark closet. A young dark haired boy was in the corner crying and she could feel everything he was feeling… she felt the sorrow, the loneliness and the pain, both physical and emotional. She realized she was looking at a very young Potter. The scenes continued to change and she saw the muggles that must have raised him, she saw all of the times they hit him too hard or starved him too long. She saw the dark dank closet that was his room for more than half his life.

_I never knew… _she thought, desperately wanting it to stop. But it didn't stop –she continued to see the boy grow up, desperate, lonely and so _so _sad. The memories reached the Hogwarts years and she desperately wanted to reach out and warn the boy, tell him to stop, to not go but was forced to watch and feel everything as he continued to suffer, unable to stop the people he loved from being hurt. She wanted to scream and close her eyes but she couldn't – she saw every cruel thing she had ever done to Potter, felt his fear and revulsion when he cursed her sixth year, his pain when he attended her funeral. When it finally ended she was back in the classroom, one emotion filling her as she saw all of the pain she had just experienced etched on Harry's face. How had such a simple spell spun so far out of control?

"Harry, I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to…" she finally calmed down and taking a few shaky breaths looked up at Harry. He looked worried and a little confused but continued to comfort her, not saying anything.

"I never knew… I saw…" she bit her lip, looking for the right words. A look of realization crossed his face.

"You saw the same things I saw, didn't you?" She just nodded, looking down. He pushed some hair back from where it had fallen in her face. She felt him lift up her chin and she looked back up into his eyes. Unbelievably, he was smiling.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It was an accident… I know you didn't mean to do it." She nodded again. She could have left it there but she had to ask…

"How do you do it? After all of that… how do you _smile?_"

"That was just the bad stuff – there's been a lot of good stuff, too," he said softly, still smiling. She took a steadying breath and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"Thanks,"

"You know, I'd like it if we could have a conversation that didn't start with you in tears," he said, laughing.

"Trust me, I'd like that too," she responded, laughing with him. He let her go and there was an awkward moment as they both stood silently in the hall. Harry looked down at his watch.

"I guess we should head back to class, there's still about half an hour left," he commented, looking back up. Draco shook her head.

"You go ahead, I think I'm going to head back to the dorms. I'll apologize to Madame Pomfrey later."

"You sure?" he asked. She nodded and began to walk away back towards the Slytherin dorms.

"Hey, Alex, guess what?" She turned around to see Harry still standing in the hallway, hands in his pockets, a cocky smile on his face.

"What?"

"You called me Harry," She flushed and he walked away with a wave.

* * *

Draco made her way back to the dorms, sat down in one of the large armchairs in the common room and pulled out some books from her bag, intending to use the skipped class period to get some work done in the peace and quiet. The rest of the letter from her grandmother fell onto the ground. She stared at the pages for a moment – after what had happened with Harry in Healing she'd actually forgotten the letter. The rage she had felt earlier bubbled up but was replaced by a deep-seated resignation. She opened the letters and began to read, her eyes catching on the names and details of the cases.

_Drusilla Malfoy – previously Drusus Malfoy – increased magical prowess – burned down barn trying to light a candle – most successful debutante of the season – married well – three kids. _

_Katarina Malfoy – previously Paulus Malfoy – extremely successful potioneer – eloped – familial status unknown. _

_Seneca Malfoy – commited suicide, age twenty. _

Draco's stomach dropped reading the last entry. The first two had been several pages long, detailing the events and transitions of the two members of the Malfoy family. They had been slightly comforting – Draco certainly wasn't going to think about the kids and family aspect but it had seemed that both of her ancestors had managed to accept what had happened to them eventually but the last… she shook her head trying to clear the thoughts. She'd never considered _that_, even when she had been at her lowest.

"That's a long letter," Pansy said, setting her stuff down and coming to stand next to Draco's armchair.

"Huh? Oh, no, this isn't the letter. And shouldn't you still be in class?"

"Ended early – _Seneca Malfoy. _Oh, so this has happened before?" Pansy read the rest of the paper over her shoulder, her mouth forming a small "O" when she came to the end. Draco folded the pages and stuffed them back in her bag as a few students began to make their way through the portal.

"Yeah, a few times. The others are less depressing,"

"Good. What did Blanche have to say about what happened Friday?" she asked, sitting down in the armchair next to Draco.

"Well, I can't remember her exact phrasing since I burned the letter-"

"You _burned _the letter?" Pansy interrupted

"I was angry," Draco responded, only looking slightly abashed.

"So…." Draco quietly outlined what Blanche had told her. To her chagrin Pansy started laughing, cackling so loudly the few other people in the room started staring.

"Aren't you supposed to be sympathetic?" Draco asked scathingly.

"I'm sorry, I know it's got to be weird for you, but it is just so ridiculous! You have to have sex to survive? Well, I'm sure there will be plenty of willing volunteers," Pansy said smirking.

"What are we volunteering for?" Blaise said, sinking down in another armchair.

"Sleeping with Alex," Pansy said.

"Sign me up," Blaise said, waggling his eyebrows at her. Draco rolled her eyes in response.

"Keep dreaming, mate," she said, leaning back in her chair.

"One of these days you're going to succumb to my charm," Blaise retorted with a brilliant smile. Draco laughed then turned back to Pansy as she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"So what are you going to do?" Pansy asked.

"I guess I'll figure that out when I get there," Draco said with a sigh.

* * *

Before they knew it they'd been back at Hogwarts for over a month. Harry, Ron and Ginny made their way into the Great Hall for dinner, soaked to the bone and freezing. Harry had dragged the team out for an impromptu practice in the storm, insisting, in an Oliver Wood-esque manner, that in order to play under the worst conditions they had to practice under the worst conditions. Hermione squealed as Ron came up behind her and hugged, dripping everywhere.

"Ronald! You're soaking wet! Get off me," she said laughingly. Harry and Ginny sat down on the other side of the table where Neville was already sitting with a plate full of food.

"Hey, guys. How was practice?" he said.

"Wet," Ginny said with a sneer.

"Yeah – but if it rains during the game, we'll be ready!" Harry protested. Ginny just rolled her eyes and turned to talk to some girls sitting on her other side. Ron and Hermione had finished with their public display of affection and Ron was now focused on the huge plate of food in front of him.

"So, Harry, how are things going with Alex?" Hermione asked with a suggestive smile. Harry choked a little on the pumpkin juice he was drinking.

"Wh-what?" he asked.

"Harry – first there was the time I found you in the dungeons and then there was Healing a couple weeks ago – you're not exactly a master at hiding what you're feeling," Hermione said, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"Its- nothing, we're just friends!" Harry insisted, his cheeks flushed. She smiled and returned to her food leaving Harry to mull over what she had said. Things had been a little awkward at first after what happened in Healing but they'd formed a tentative friendship. She actually smiled and laughed when he talked to her and he looked forward to every Potions class. _Do I…?_

Harry blushed a little more deeply and started playing with the food on his plate. He'd never been good at anything to do with girls. His relationship with Cho had been a train wreck and things with Ginny just sort of happened. He had absolutely no experience with this part of things… the _wooing_. He cringed inwardly at the word. It didn't help that the entire wizarding world seemed to believe he was some sort of ladies man after the hundreds of articles released about his love life since the Triwizard Cup.

He sighed and dug into his dinner, still unsure about what to do.

* * *

Draco had spent past couple of weeks vehemently avoiding any situation that could have led to something like what had happened before. She didn't attend any of the dorm parties and tried to keep her emotions completely in check. The headaches hadn't returned and she felt no unusual desires. A small part of her was starting to believe that it had been a fluke. But the headache returned during the first week of October.

She struggled through the first day, unable to bring herself to do what she knew she'd have to do eventually. _Maybe if I just hold out a little longer_… She was barely able to pay attention in Herbology, unable to even formulate a plan of some sort. Head still pounding she made her way down to the dungeons where she was meeting with Potter to check on their potion.

"Hello, Potter," she said as she walked into the classroom.

"I wish you'd go back to Harry," he said laughingly, turning around from the potion he was stirring to look at her. The smile fell from his face as he took in her pale, sweating face. He rushed forward and caught her just before she hit the ground, everything going black.

When she woke up she was in the hospital wing, Harry leaning over her. He sighed leaning back when she opened her eyes.

"Thank Merlin! You just passed out and I didn't know what was wrong so I brought you here, but Madame Pomfrey's out –" Harry rambled, obviously relieved. Draco held up a finger, quieting him and tried to sit up but pain shot through her head and she fell back down with a moan.

Harry's face was floating above hers again, the concern clear in his eyes. He was rambling again but she reached up and placed a finger against his lips, silencing him. She felt a rush of heat and everything seemed to focus on him, the rest of the world disappearing. The veela magic was coursing through her, compelling her but this time it was different; it was less desperate, more of a steady compulsion, one she could have easily resisted. She removed her finger from his lips and moved her hand to cup his face, stroking his cheek with her thumb.

* * *

Harry's heart was beating rapidly in his chest and every nerve in his body was attuned to the feel of the girl's hand on his cheek. It felt as if there was some sort of energy pouring out of her and into him through their one point of contact. He looked down, searching her eyes for permission before leaning in, closing the few inches between them.

The kiss was extremely chaste – their lips only touched for a few moments before he pulled back but even that slight contact had his entire body tingling as if he'd been shocked. His heart was pounding and every part of him wanted to lean back in for more but he stayed frozen, taking in every detail of her beautiful face.

The door to the hospital wing opened and Harry jumped back, face burning. Madame Pomfrey strode over to the bed.

"Well, Mr. Potter, when someone told me they saw you rushing towards the hospital wing I never would have guessed that you wouldn't be the patient," Madame Pomfrey said, eyes twinkling.

"Uh…no… well, its Alex, um, Miss Dubois. She, uh, passed out in the potions room," Harry managed to stammer.

"What exactly happened, Miss Dubois?" Madame Pomfrey asked, pushing past Harry.

"I – I'm not sure, my head hurt and then, like Harry said, I passed out," she said softly.

"And how do you feel now, does your head still hurt?"

"No – I feel fine," Alex said, sounding slightly surprised.

"Well, I'll do a full evaluation just to make sure. Thank you for bringing her here, ," Madame Pomfrey said. She gave Harry a pointed look and said, "You can leave now, ."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Um, bye," he said, looking at Alex who was also blushing prettily before rushing out of the hospital wing.

Madame Pomfrey did a series of tests and then insisted on Draco staying the entire night. When she awoke the next day Madame Pomfrey was standing next to her bed with a tray of breakfast. Draco sat up and gratefully accepted the tray, ravenous.

"As far as I can tell, Miss Dubois, you seem to be perfectly healthy and I am at a loss as to why you fainted yesterday. I can only recommend that you refrain from any sort of strenuous activity. Otherwise, you are free to go. Its already past lunchtime but you should be fine to attend your afternoon classes. However-" she paused, looking at him curiously, "Well, I don't mean to pry, but I have to ask about your scars. They are particularly severe for one so young…"

Draco shifted awkwardly, unsure how to respond.

"I've… made some mistakes in my past," she said slowly, easing her way out of the hospital bed.

"I understand," Madame Pomfrey said with a small smile.

Draco's head was still spinning later that day when she gratefully made her way back to the dorm. It had taken all of her willpower to not think about last night as she sat in class, attempting to focus on the lectures. Now that she was alone…

Her lips tingled as she remembered the feel of Harry's lips on hers. She felt herself smiling and quickly clamped a hand over her own mouth. She tried to call up the feelings of revulsion and fear she had felt the last time the veela magic had taken hold but all she felt was a giddy sort of happiness. Additionally, last night had been _different. _She hadn't felt possessed and helpless, she'd felt powerful and -

_Stop it! _She commanded herself, trying to remember that it was _Potter _– her arch-nemesis, the boy she had hated for half her life. Well, perhaps hate wasn't so true, she thought, looking back at her first six years at Hogwarts. She'd been extremely jealous, found him impossibly annoying, but hated? No, she'd never hated Harry Potter. She felt herself starting to smile again and quickly pursed her lips, pushing her way into the Slytherin common room. There was a squeal and she felt something collide with her, wrapping its arms tightly around her.

"Thank goodness you're okay! When you didn't ever come back last night I wasn't sure what had happened and I knew you hadn't been feeling well and -" Pansy mumbled. Draco managed to extricate herself from Pansy and stood back, looking at both Pansy and Blaise, who stood behind her, slightly embarrassed. It hadn't even crossed her mind to let Pansy or Blaise know that she was in the hospital wing.

"I'm fine, thanks," she mumbled. "I passed out yesterday and Madame Pomfrey kept me in the hospital wing overnight."

"You should have sent word somehow!" Pansy said.

"Well, given that I was unconscious it wasn't exactly my top priority," Draco retorted, even though she still felt slightly guilty for not notifying her friends. Pansy just huffed.

"I noticed you seemed to not be feeling well these past couple of days, but I figured you'd find some way to take care of it," she said, looking pointedly at Draco.

"I, uh, did take care of that," Draco said, looking off to the side and biting her lip. Pansy raised her eyebrows but to Draco's great relief didn't say anything else. "I'm going to call it a night, see you tomorrow,"

She made her way back to her dorm room at threw herself down on the bed. Finally alone she smiled broadly, unable to stop herself.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Again, thanks for all the reads/reviews/etc.! Just a quick note - the story is rated M for a reason so those of you clamoring for more smut action just stay tuned! I just don't want to rush them into anything. **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter Eight

The first round of exams in mid-October deprived every single seventh year student at Hogwarts of even the concept of free time. Most could only be found in one of three places – the library, class and bed. And with the first game of the quidditch season coming up Harry had even less time than the average seventh year student. The past week had been so busy that Harry hadn't even had a chance to talk to Alex about what had happened in the hospital wing. They saw each other in their classes but she acted as if nothing had happened. He consulted Hermione and she had said that that was girl code for "it wasn't bad but I don't want to talk about it in public." Whatever that meant.

Harry collapsed in the chair next to Hermione in the library, exhausted from another marathon quidditch practice. On the up side their team should easily dominate Slytherin in the upcoming match. On the down side, Harry was so far behind on his homework that he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to play in the upcoming match. Hermione looked up and pushed a couple scrolls across the table towards Harry.

"Here's a _suggested _outline for the History of Magic essay and a study guide for Transfiguration."

"Hermione, you're a life saver," Harry said gratefully, pulling open the extremely detailed outline.

"We can't have you missing the game on Saturday – even McGonagall said how much of a shame that would be when she gave me the study guide." Hermione responded, a twinkle in her eye. Harry made a mental note to thank Professor McGonagall as he got to work on the essay.

* * *

Draco was probably the only seventh year that wasn't currently holed up somewhere studying. In fact, she was probably the only student who didn't have any work to do at all. She'd spent the past week vehemently throwing herself into her schoolwork, spending every waking moment sequestered somewhere working on essays, study guides - whatever would keep her mind busy and not thinking about _other _things.

But now that she was out of work to do she had nothing to do but think about those _other things. _

_Stupid Potter and his stupid face and his stupid… _she thought, absentmindedly flipping another page of the textbook she had in her lap. She'd completely frozen when she'd seen him in Potions the next day, totally unsure of how to act. So she'd acted like nothing had happened. And now she didn't know what to do. Her only source of how girls acted in this situation was Pansy and despite her friends best efforts to pry what had happened out of her, Draco had kept her mouth shut about her and Harry's kiss.

_What would I do if I were a guy…_ if she'd still been a guy she would've swaggered up to the girl, turned on the charm and asked her to Hogsmeade or something like that. But the thought of trying that with Potter made her feel a little queasy. And then there was the fact that it was _Potter_ that she was trying not to think about in the first place. She could hardly refer to him by his first name and here she was fantasizing about asking him out to Hogsmeade. She couldn't do anything with Potter – what if he found out who she really was? She could just picture the look of disgust on his face and sneered to herself.

_No… it is best to just pretend like nothing happened, _she thought a little sadly. But then there was the enigma of how different the situation with Harry had been from the previous time the veela magic had taken control. Firstly it had felt entirely different and secondly it had been over a week now and her headache hadn't returned. She'd assumed before that the amount of sexual energy generated probably roughly corresponded with how far one went but so far it seemed that hardly kissing Harry was just as good as going as far as she had with the Morgan boy.

"Um, Alex, I think there's something you should see," Pansy said, sitting down next to Draco on the couch. She looked a little nervous and was clutching a copy of _Witch Weekly_ in her hand, which she passed over to Draco.

"You know, Pansy, reading this isn't going to help you pass your NEWTs," Draco said lightly, accepting the magazine. Her eyes immediately caught on the flashing headline of the page Pansy had held it open to.

_Malfoy Heir Alive? _

_By Rita Skeeter_

She looked up at Pansy, panicked.

"I mean, its just a trashy gossip column, nobody takes it seriously but you should probably read it anyway." Draco nodded, her throat dry, and continued reading the article.

_We all desperately mourned the tragic death of young Draco Malfoy this past summer – but what if it was all a hoax? On a recent trip to Hogwarts I encountered evidence that someone is still corresponding with the young Malfoy. What this means we don't know yet but I intend to find out! _

"Where do you think she got this?" Pansy asked.

"I'm not sure – my grandmother addressed the envelope to Alex, but the letter inside said Draco. But I burned that – there's no way she could have seen it. And you and Professor McGonagall are the only people who know," Draco said, shaking her head.

"I'm sure its nothing – she's probably just trying to start a rumor with no proof,"

"Yeah, probably…" Draco said but it still made her feel uneasy.

* * *

Friday afternoon Draco was still feeling uneasy about the article. As far as she was aware there hadn't been any sort of follow up or response but the fact that someone even came up with that theory… she didn't like it. She was making her way back to the dorms when she ran across Blaise.

"Alex! I was just looking for you," he said with a wide smile.

"Hello, Blaise," she responded, still slightly distracted. He placed a hand on her lower back and guided her to the edge of the hallway.

"I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to the quidditch game tomorrow," he said smoothly.

"Yeah, sure we can all go together,"

"No, I meant – well, I was asking if you'd like to go with just me," Blaise reiterated. Her mind still on other things Draco very eloquently just said -

"Huh?"

"I know I joke and tease a lot, but I really do care about you Alex. And I know a quidditch game wouldn't necessarily be the most romantic first date, but we've got pretty limited options here," he said smiling. Draco had stopped listening at the word date and was staring blankly up at Blaise, unsure of how to respond.

Blaise seemed to interpret her silence as a need to convince her further. He leaned in close, his lips brushing her ear as he whispered –

"There are _other _things we can do as well,"

Draco froze, feeling the now familiar swell of heat and magic that seem to accompany the activation of her veela blood. She could tell it had affected Blaise as well because he began to place light kisses along her jaw line, reaching her lips and kissing deeply. At first Draco's body responded instinctively, kissing him back her hands finding his chest. But then her mind caught up to what was happening and she pushed him away, breaking contact.

"I'm sorry, Blaise, I just can't-" she said briefly. Blaise blinked his eyes a couple times and shook his head, still looking dazed.

"Bloody hell – that was the veela thing, wasn't it?" he asked. Draco nodded, averting her eyes.

"Well, uh, I'm sorry about that…" he said awkwardly.

"Yeah, me too," Draco responded. They both stood there silently for a moment, cheeks flushed.

"I guess that means your answer is no?" Blaise asked with a rueful smile.

"Yeah, its still a little strange. I'm not sure I'm ready to, um, _date_ anyone." Draco said, her cheeks flushing even more deeply. Never before in her life had she ever imagined having a conversation like this one.

"Its okay, I'll wait," Blaise said with a smile, walking away.

"That's not really what I meant." Draco said to the empty air, grimacing.

Suddenly she didn't really feel like returning to the common room, not wanting to have to explain anything to Pansy or talk about the article or face Blaise again. She turned around and just started walking in the opposite direction, lost in her own thoughts and worries.

Somehow in her wanderings, she found herself outside on the edge of the quidditch pitch. She was actually extremely excited for the game the next day – she really missed flying.

She was about to wander out onto the pitch when she realized she wasn't alone. Someone was up in the air flying laps around the stadium, diving, accelerating – the only person she knew who could fly that well was Potter. A ray of the setting sun hit the flier and she realized it was indeed Potter. She was about to turn and leave the pitch when he caught site of her.

"Alex! Hey!" He pulled out of a beautiful dive and landed right in front of her.

"Hey. That was some really impressive flying – still won't stand a chance tomorrow," she teased, continuing with her scheme of acting like nothing had happened, despite the fact that her stomach was doing flips.

"Oh really? And why's that?" he asked, smiling.

"They've got a fresh new seeker – makes you look like an old man," She actually had no idea how good the Slytherin team was but couldn't help baiting Harry.

"So you're a quidditch fan, eh? Do you play?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," she answered before she was able to stop herself, "I did at… Beauxbatons." She inwardly thanked the fact that Harry seemed to not know anything about international wizarding schools – she didn't think Beauxbatons even had a quidditch team.

"What position?"

"Seeker." Harry's eyes lit up.

"How good are you?"

"Better than you," she retorted.

"Prove it." Harry said smiling. Draco knew full well that she didn't stand a chance against Harry but her pride would never let her back down from a challenge.

"You're on."

* * *

Harry went to grab the snitch while Alex got a broom. They met back at the center of the stadium and stood across from each other. He may not know how to talk to her about what happened in the hospital wing but quidditch was his territory – he knew how to do this.

"We play until dark, whoever catches it wins," Harry said simply. They both mounted their brooms and Harry held his hand out, grasping the struggling snitch tightly. He looked up at her, a cocky smile on his face and she shot him one right back.

"Scared, Potter?"

"You wish."

He was struck with an overwhelming sense of deja vu as he released the snitch but it quickly vanished as they both accelerated after the small golden ball. It shot almost directly up, gaining altitude quickly. They both flew up after it, Harry gaining slightly and just as he almost had his hand on it the snitch began to drop giving Alex the advantage. She was able to quickly change directions but it took Harry a little longer after his quick upward climb.

He quickly caught up with her and for a while they were neck in neck as the snitch looped crazily in and out of the stands. She really was quite good – he looked sideways at Alex who was smiling widely, her eyes alight and her long blonde hair streaming after her. She looked more alive than he had ever seen her before. She took advantage of his distraction, swerving away after the snitch and a moment later Harry followed, right on her tail. The snitch had taken them fairly high again and then switched back into a nearly vertical drop. Both skilled fliers dove after the small ball, pulling out mere feet above the ground. Racing just above the grass they both reached out their hands. Harry felt his fingers brush the cool metal and made to grasp it but was jerked away as their brooms collided. He made one last desperate grab before tumbling to the ground.

They both lay on their backs for a few moments, breathing heavily and looking up at the night sky. Harry pushed himself up onto one elbow and displayed the gold object in his fist.

"I win," he said, smiling.

"Doesn't count – you pushed me off my broom, that's unlawful conduct!" Alex protested, leaning back on her elbows.

"I did no such thing! That was all you," Harry said, laughing. "I won so you have to answer one question with complete honesty."

Alex raised an eyebrow but didn't protest.

"Who do you think is going to win tomorrow's match?" Alex let out a sharp laugh.

"You can ask me anything and you ask me that?" she said disbelievingly.

"C'mon, just answer," Harry said, still smiling widely. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Slytherin doesn't stand a chance," she admitted with a small smile.

Harry laughed and looked down at her. Their laughter quieted and he found himself still studying her – the curve of her neck, the way she tilted her head. He reached over and ran the back of his hand along the line her jaw. She didn't move, just stared back at him with her clear gray eyes.

He leaned down, pausing barely an inch away, searching her eyes. There was no pulsing heat or energy between them this time just a quiet, peaceful intimacy. She arched her neck, closing the last bit of space between their faces. Her lips brushed his, softly at first, but then more deeply. He moved his body closer to hers, pushing his hand back into her silky hair as their lips moved in tandem.

They broke the kiss, pulling back and smiling sheepishly at each other. Harry drank in her shining eyes and pink tinged cheeks desperately wanting the moment to last.

"My friends are probably wondering why I'm not at dinner…" she said softly, not breaking eye contact.

"Yeah… mine too,"

"We should probably go," she said, a bit reluctantly, sitting up. Harry agreed, pulling himself up to his feet before reaching down and helping her up off of the grass.

"You go ahead, I'll put everything away," Harry said gathering up the two brooms and the snitch, which was flying around their heads. She nodded and began to walk away. She paused and turned back.

"Good night… Harry."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but hopefully that was squee-worthy! **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I am _so sorry_ for such an update delay! I just went back to college so I've been super busy with all of that. Sadly, being back at school means I'll have much less time to write so updates will probably continue to be infrequent but I promise to keep updating! **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter Nine

Draco spent the rest of the evening in a daze. She went to dinner and routinely filled her plate, ate, responded whenever addressed, but her mind was elsewhere. Specifically, her mind was still on the quidditch pitch. Even the next morning she was still distracted as she made her way to the pitch with Pansy.

"Hello! Alex, are you in there?" Pansy had stepped in front of her and was waving a hand in front of her face.

"Huh? Yes, sorry? Did you say something?" She focused on Pansy who was pouting slightly and looked annoyed.

"What's going on? You've been acting really strangely since yesterday,"

"It's nothing – I'm just excited for the game," she said, smiling slightly at Pansy.

"I don't buy it, something happened." Pansy said, raising an eyebrow. "After the game, we're going to talk."

Draco frowned guiltily as she followed Pansy up the stairs to the stands. Pansy hadn't been anything but supportive, why was she so reluctant to tell her about Potter? It was probably because she could hardly believe it herself – telling Pansy would make it seem more real. And making it more real would mean she'd have to face the reality of what was happening. _Draco Malfoy falling for Harry Potter, it sounds like the punch line of a bad joke _she though grimacing to herself.

They made it to the top of the stairs and pushed their way to the front of the crowd. It was a beautiful fall day, the sky clear and the air crisp. The clock neared 3:00 and the stands were almost full. The Gryffindors had started to chant and Draco could hear the Slytherins around her cheering in response. Pansy enthusiastically waved a green and silver pennant

"Welcome everyone to the first game of the quidditch season!" a loud voice with an Irish lilt roared out. "Today we have Gryffindor versus Slytherin!"

Draco's excitement was building, though she wasn't sure whether it was more due to the impending quidditch game or the fact that she was about to see Harry again.

"Here come's the defending champions – GRYFFINDOR!" The team strolled out of the locker rooms one at a time as the announcer yelled out their names. "We've got Peakes, Coote, Robbins, Thomas, Weasley, Weasley _aaaaannnd _POTTER!" Draco's heart skipped a beat as Harry walked out. The announcer went on to announce the names of the Slytherin team but Draco wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were on Harry as he pulled the team in for a last minute pep talk. They broke apart and lined up across from the Slytherin team and the captains shook hand. A few moments later the whistle was blown and they were off.

* * *

The game hardly lasted fifteen minutes. Gryffindor had immediately gotten possession of the quaffle, scoring within the first minute. Ten minutes later they were up 100-10. Harry had spent the first part of the game circling high up and watching how well his team played together. The chasers were seamless and Peates and Coote had improved so much they were comparable to Fred and George. He saw a brief flash of gold at the far end of the pitch and shot off after, catching the snitch without even a challenge only moments later, making the final score 260-20.

Harry hadn't been in such good spirits since before the war. Between kissing Alex on the quidditch pitch and wiping the floor with Slytherin he was on cloud nine. He strolled into the Gryffindor common room to the roar of every single Gryffindor cheering them on. He and the rest of the team were immediately assaulted by all of their friends and housemates wanting to run back through every detail of the incredible game. He beamed widely and indulged them, reenacting his capture of the snitch several times before grabbing a butterbeer and making his way to the corner of the room where his friends had managed to grab a couple seats.

"That was bloody amazing, Harry! Great game!" Neville said, clapping him on the back.

"It's the chasers you should be praising – I've never seen a more cohesive team!" He said proudly. Ginny shrugged from her place next to Dean.

"It helped that Slytherin's keeper was worse than Ron on a bad day," she said teasingly. Harry laughed along with everyone else before sitting down in a chair and leaning back. He sipped slowly on his butterbeer, enjoying the moment. He surveyed the room – most of the Gryffindors had settled into smaller groups, standing around and snacking on the food someone had smuggled up from the kitchens. He was about to turn back to the conversation going on within his own circle of friends when something caught his attention.

"I've heard that Alex Dubois girl is a total slag," one girl behind him said.

"I know! I saw her the other day _snogging_ Blaise Zabini in the middle of hallway between classes!"

"And have you seen the way some of the guys look at her? Its disgusting,"

"Maybe that's how the did things in France, but that's just not acceptable here."

Harry felt a cocktail of explosive emotions boiling up within him but he tried to keep them at bay as he pushed himself up out of his chair and walked over to the group of girls.

"Hello," Harry said shortly. The girls looked up, excited that _the _Harry Potter was talking to him until they saw the stormy look on his face.

"I couldn't help but overhear – have any of you every actually talked to Alex Dubois?" Harry said steadily. The girls looked around at each other until one found the courage to meet Harry's blazing eyes. Most of the common room had gone quiet and was watching the exchange.

"Um…no," she said quietly, shrinking under Harry's gaze.

"Then I would advise you to keep your bloody mouth shut," Harry said. The girl he had talked to dissolved into tears but Harry just turned and stormed out of the dorm.

* * *

Almost immediately after the game Pansy grabbed Draco and pulled her away from the rest of the moping Slytherins. They made their way to an abandoned classroom where Pansy pushed Draco into a chair and gave her a once over, very similar to her first encounter on the Hogwarts Express.

"Okay, Draco. What's got you so messed up? Is it the Skeeter article?" Pansy asked, leaning against a desk across from her. Draco briefly considered using that as a scapegoat but decided against lying to Pansy any further.

"That's part of it…" Draco murmured.

"And the other part is?"

Draco stamped down on her rising emotions, and looked back up at Pansy unsure of what to say.

"Do you remember a few weeks ago when I fainted and went to the hospital wing because of the headaches from the veela thing?" Draco said slowly. Pansy nodded and Draco continued.

"When I got back you asked if I had taken care of it…" Pansy's mouth formed a small "o" as she figured out what Draco was getting at.

"I tried to ask you who with and you wouldn't tell me!" This time it was Draco who just nodded.

"But you're going to tell me now," Pansy said and it wasn't a question. Draco took a steadying breath; preparing herself for whatever reaction Pansy was going to have.

"I was working on a potion with Potter when I fainted… he's the one who took me to the hospital wing and when I woke up he was right there…"

"You snogged _Potter?" _Pansy said incredulously.

"It was just a kiss…that time," Draco said, barely whispering the second part. She blushed very uncharacteristically at this point.

"That time?" Pansy's eyebrows were raised so high they almost blended with her hairline and her mouth was quivering, caught between a disapproving frown and hysterical laughter.

"I ran into him again last night and we…um… yeah," Draco said, looking anywhere but at Pansy.

"Okay, so under the influence of the veela magic you snogged Potter… that's awkward, sure," Pansy said diplomatically. Draco looked down and shook her head, long strands of blond hair falling from their place tucked behind her ears.

"It wasn't awkward? Or it wasn't because of the veela magic?"

"The first time maybe a little but the second time was just me," Draco whispered, her voice nearly dying out by the end. Pansy sat down heavily in the empty desk chair.

"I knew you two had been getting along in Potions but I never would've thought that –"

"Please don't say it out loud," Draco said, grimacing.

"-you'd _fall_ for him!" She finished anyways. Draco groaned and buried her head in her hands.

"That's what it is, isn't it? You're falling for Potter? Draco Malfoy is falling for Harry Potter!" Draco peaked out through her fingers to see that Pansy was smiling and chuckling slightly.

"I told you not to say it out loud…" she said sneering and looking up from her hands.

"I'm sorry, it just sounds so crazy!" Pansy said, still laughing slightly.

"Trust me, that's exactly what I think as well." Draco said, the sneer still on her face.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Do? Nothing!" Draco said, a slightly panicked look on her face, "I _can't _do anything. Can you imagine what would happen if he found out? Hey, Alex, can I meet your parents? Don't worry, Harry, you already have! He'd _kill _me."

Pansy looked like she was about to say something else but was stopped when the door to the classroom slammed open.

"Sorry! Uh… wrong classroom," Harry said, backing out of the classroom. Then he recognized the two girls sitting in the classroom and turned around abruptly. "Wait, no, hey – I was just looking for you," he said addressing Draco.

"I'll leave you two alone," Pansy said getting up. She winked at Draco on her way out who blushed and shooed her out with a hand.

"Hey," Harry said walking up to her.

"Hey," Draco said shyly, staying seated. There was a moment of awkward silence until Draco looked up at Harry.

"That was some amazing quidditch earlier."

Harry nodded and then blurted out –

"Did you kiss Zabini yesterday?"

"What? Well…um…yeah…" Draco said, slightly shocked. She wondered how Harry knew about that. She watched, her heart constricting as Harry's face fell and then slowly transitioned to anger.

"Wish I had know you were free for all," he spat out. Draco's mouth fell open in shock and her earlier feelings of guilt vanished as a rage to match Harry's own rose up inside her.

"_What did you just call me?" _

"You having hearing problems? I don't know how the French do it but we generally don't consider it right to snog two guys on the same day."

"Its not like we were dating or anything, Potter. I'd consider it more a temporary lapse of judgment," Draco retorted, pouring as much venom into _Potter_ as she could muster.

"Oh, so we're back to Potter now, are we?"

"If you're going to continue to be such a bastard, yes we are!"

"I'd rather be a bastard than a…a…"

"Don't you dare say it!"

Draco had long ago jumped out of her seat and was now standing chest to chest with Potter, their noses nearly touching as they yelled into each other's faces. They were both breathing heavily and there was magic sparking in the air from both powerful mages. She stared him straight in the eyes, daring him to finish the sentence. Harry seemed to gather the courage and spat it out.

"A _slut._"

The smack echoed through the empty classroom as Draco's hand impacted with Harry's cheek. She felt tears welling up in the corner of her eyes and she stormed past him trying to flee the classroom. Harry seemed to realize what he said and spun around.

"Wait! Alex, I'm sorry. I didn't mean –" he exclaimed as he reached out, catching her by the elbow. Like the incident in the dungeons everything went black for a moment and next thing she knew Harry had her pinned on her back along a desk his hands clamping her wrists painfully down above her head.

Harry took one look at the crying girl he had pinned beneath him and jumped back, absolutely horrified.

"Oh, Merlin, Alex, I'm so sorry, I don't know…" He stepped forward, reaching out to comfort her.

"Don't touch me!" he paused momentarily but continued to move forward and she shied away from his outstretched hand.

"Alex, please, I'm sorry-"

"Just go!" Draco shrieked, much louder than she had intended. She felt the electric shock of loose magic as it exploded out of her. The pulse threw Harry back about ten feet, knocking down several desks as well. He picked himself up off the floor and with one last hurt look backed out of the classroom. Draco collapsed onto the floor, all of her walls crumbling, and sobbed.

* * *

**A/N: Another reason for the delay with this chapter is that I had a lot of trouble writing it - I much prefer writing cute fluffy/smutty scenes compared to fight scenes. However, it is Harry and Draco and it wouldn't be realistic if they didn't spend half of their time fighting. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Writing a chapter of this fanfic while I'm supposed to be studying for my quiz tomorrow morning? Good life decisions. Hope you all enjoy! As always, thanks for all the wonderful reviews! **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Harry sat on the edge of the lake with his head hung low as he finished telling Hermione what had happened the previous. After leaving the classroom he had wandered aimlessly around the castle until he could be sure that the common room in Gryffindor Tower would be deserted enough for him to sneak in without being seen. Although he had tried to do the same in the morning, Hermione was waiting for him when he came down. She followed him to the lake, pestering him until he finally surrendered and told her everything.

Harry flinched as he was smacked for the second time in twenty-four hours, although this one was on the back of his head and thankfully not on his still sore cheek. In fact – if Harry had not been on the receiving end of this particular smack he would have laughed at how much Hermione looked like Mrs. Weasley at the moment.

"You are such as idiot!"

"Don't you think I know that already!" Harry nearly yelled in response, his temper flaring briefly before settling back down as he stared morosely out across the lake. "So what do I do now?"

"You go find her and you grovel and apologize until she forgives you,"

Harry snorted.

"I doubt she'll see me – she did throw me out of the classroom last night quite literally."

"And you deserved that."

"Fine. So I apologize but that doesn't change the fact that she snogged Zabini," Harry mumbled. Hermione sighed.

"Really, Harry, sometimes you are as bad as Ronald." He raised an eyebrow at her and she continued. "I don't know what happened with Zabini but I'd say the way she reacted last night is as good a sign as any of how she feels about you – and if you mean that much to her she'll give you another chance. Just keep your head and talk to her about what happened."

"Keeping my head is not exactly my strongpoint," Harry said, smiling wryly. "You really think she'll give me another chance?"

"Well you'll never know unless you go talk to her, will you?" Hermione smiled at Harry, standing up and extending a hand to him. "Come on, let's go get some breakfast."

Harry walked into the Great Hall eyes darting over to the Slytherin table looking for Alex's familiar blonde hair but she was nowhere to be seen. He did, however, catch Pansy Parkinson's eye. Her glare sent a chill down his spine. Sighing, he sat down next to Hermione and tried to choke down some jam and toast.

He spent the rest of the day wandering around the castle to some of the spots he knew Alex liked to spend time but couldn't find her anywhere. He returned to the Great Hall for lunch and dinner but she didn't show at either of those meals as well. Finally he gave up and attempted to get some homework done, consoling himself with the fact that he'd definitely see Alex in Potions the next day.

* * *

"Come on Alex, you have to eat," Pansy said, laying a plate of sandwiches she had gotten from the kitchen on the foot of Draco's bed.

"I'm not hungry," the lump of blankets at the head of bed murmured back. Pansy sighed and stomped up to the head of the bed, pulling the sheets back to expose Draco.

"Sit up!" Pansy barked and Draco obeyed. She thrust the plate of sandwiches into Draco's lap and commanded her to eat. Despite her earlier protests, Draco was starving, having skipped both breakfast and lunch. She quickly made her way through the first sandwich and moved on to the second as Pansy sat down next to her.

"So…" Pansy started off slowly, "Did you tell him?"

"What? No! Of course not!" Draco gasped, putting the sandwich down.

"Then what happened?"

"Nothing!"

"'Nothing' does not make Draco Malfoy curl up in fetal position. That was pitiful, dear."

"I was not in fetal position."

"Yes you were, but it doesn't matter. You don't have to tell me what he did but I do know he looked pathetically sad when he didn't see you at the table this morning."

Draco ignored Pansy's probing instead focusing instead on the sandwich in front of her.

"You can't avoid him forever," Pansy stated matter-of-factly.

"I can try," Draco protested. There was a knock on the door, and Pansy got up to answer it.

"Hey, Blaise, come on in." As Blaise started to enter the room Draco jumped up and looked for possible escape routes, but there were none. Blaise and Pansy walked over to where Draco was standing.

"Hey Alex," Blaise said.

"Hey Blaise." The conversation stopped and Draco glanced around the room, looking anywhere but at Blaise or Pansy, who was now glancing back and forth between her two friends suspiciously.

"Did something happen with you two?" Pansy asked, one eyebrow raised.

"I just made a fool of myself thinking I had a chance with Alex," Blaise said with a joking smile, "And I got to experience some of that veela magic firsthand."

Pansy started laughing but caught herself, putting a hand up to her mouth, her eyes dancing with amusement.

"Thanks, Pansy," Blaise said with a sardonic glance towards her. She lowered her hand and shrugged glancing at Draco who sneered back at her.

"Well," Blaise said, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay since I didn't see you at any of the meals today."

"I wasn't feeling well, but I'm fine now, thanks," Draco said formally. Silence fell again and a moment passed before Blaise spoke again.

"Good, well, then, uh, I guess I'll let you rest. See you tomorrow." He left the room and Pansy immediately pounced on her.

"You didn't tell me you snogged Blaise! How was it?" She asked, her eyes dancing.

"It was out of my control is what it was," Draco said curtly.

"It had to be interesting though – snogging your best guy friend."

"Pansy, stop."

"Oh, come on, Draco! Blaise is supposed to be a fantastic kisser." She said, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Please, Pansy. I did not want to nor do I want to kiss Blaise and kissing Blaise is the reason why the one person I do want to kiss is furious with me." Draco spit out. The amusement drained from Pansy's face.

"Oh… so Potter found out about Blaise?" Draco nodded, sitting down heavily on the bed.

"I'm sorry, I forgot for a minute…" Pansy said sitting down next to her.

"Forgot that I'm only really interested in my former enemy?" Draco said sneeringly. Pansy nodded.

"So I'm guessing that he didn't take the news well?"

"No, he did not."

"It wasn't your fault though, right? It was the veela magic acting up!"

"Yeah."

"So why don't you tell him that?"

"What, and let him in on what a freak show I really am?" Draco said bitingly, spitting out each word. Pansy placed an arm around her shoulders.

"Draco Malfoy, you are not a freak show." Pansy said sternly.

* * *

Outside the door to the girl's dormitory Blaise paled and stepped away from the door in disbelief. He had stayed behind at the door hoping to hear what Alex had really thought about their kiss but had gotten so much more than he bargained for.

_Alex is Draco?_ However ridiculous it sounded the more he thought about it the more it made sense. She looked like Draco, acted like Draco. He had gotten déjà vu so many times over something she said or did. The pieces of the puzzle slid together. He walked slowly towards the boy's dormitories, head spinning. _Draco's alive? Draco's a girl?_

He walked into the dormitory and slid open the curtains on his bed to find Daphne Greengrass reclined on his pillows in nothing but her lingerie.

"Hello there Blaise," she said in her best attempt at a seductive tone.

"Daphne, what are you doing here?" Blaise said, exasperated.

"I was just so lonely and I thought you might be too," she said pouting her cherry red lips and batting her spider-like eyelashes. Blaise didn't understand why girls thought they needed to layer on the make up like that to attract guys – he preferred girls to look natural… _like Alex. _He felt slightly nauseous at the thought and the feeling was only made worse when his gaze returned to the girl who was now trying to crawl across the bed towards him.

"Daphne, not tonight. Just go back to your own bed."

"Come on –" She pouted again and pulled herself off the bed, standing up and pressing herself against him. His body reacted instinctively but he pushed her off.

"No, just leave." She 'hmmphed' and gathered her things, storming out of the dorm.

"You used to be so much more fun." She said before leaving.

Blaise lay down on his now vacant bed and sighed. The aching in his groin was telling him he had made the wrong decision sending Daphne away but for once he had listened to his head instead. Reaching down to try and alleviate the problem the image of Alex popped into his head but it quickly morphed into one of Draco, immediately quashing any excitement that there had been. Groaning, he turned over and buried his head in the pillow.

* * *

Harry purposely arrived to the potions classroom ten minutes early the next day in an attempt to catch some time with Alex but she didn't arrive until the very minute class started. The potion they were working on that day required constant attention leaving no room for conversation and any attempts Harry made were met with silence. She then sped out of the classroom the moment class ended leaving Harry to finish up the work for the day. That night he had quidditch practice and missed her at dinner as well.

This pattern continued for the next few days until Thursday night when in a final, desperate, foolish attempt Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak and left the dorm. He made his way down to the dungeons waiting outside the entrance to the Slytherin dorms until someone finally came along and opened the door. Harry slipped in behind them and into the common room.

It was still early enough that the common room was fairly crowded, though he wasn't quite sure why anybody would want to spend time in this room. It was the complete opposite of the cozy warm common room in Gryffindor tower – it was all hard edges and smooth surfaces. The eerie green light permeating the room gave him the distinct feeling of being underwater. He weaved his way through the people in the room and entered the hallway he assumed led to the dorms. There were two doors on either side labeled "First Year Girls" and "Second Year Girls" so Harry continued down the dark hallway. Three flights of stairs down he finally came across the door labeled "Seventh Year Girls." Thankfully the door was ajar and he was able to slip in.

Only two of the beds were occupied. The first one to his left contained Pansy, who was leaning back against a pile of silk pillows that Harry knew weren't Hogwarts issue and studiously reading a copy of Witch Weekly. His heart leapt when he saw Alex in the next bed. She was sitting cross-legged with a textbook open across her legs and two more open in front of her. He took a moment to admire the way her brow furrowed when she was concentrating before crossing the room and standing next to her bed. He pulled out the note he had prepared and dropped it onto the textbook she had propped in her lap.

She jumped and looked around before opening up the note.

* * *

_I was an idiot – Harry_

Draco looked up again and her eyes caught a slight disturbance in the air about a foot away from her at the edge of the bed. She reached out quickly and caught a handful of fabric. She yanked, revealing an extremely sheepish looking Harry.

"Potter! How the hell did you get here?" Pansy shrieked, dropping her copy of _Witch Weekly. _Harry didn't take his eyes off of Draco's.

"Pansy, can we have the room?" Draco stared pointedly at her friend who finally acquiesced and left the room, magazine in hand. "So Potter, sneaking into girls dormitories now, are we?" She said, trying to sound off hand even though the tension in the air was palpable.

"I'm so sorry Alex – I didn't mean anything I said. I was a bastard and an arse and an idiot and…" he faltered.

"Continue." She said coolly.

"I had no right to react that way, I just… lose my head sometimes. I know whatever happened between you and Blaise is none of my business. I know you might not be ready to forgive me but... I just needed to apologize."

"Obviously, if you were desperate enough to sneak into the Slytherin dormitories."

"You weren't exactly giving me any other chances to talk to you," Harry said with a small smile. Draco shrugged and there were several moments of silence before Draco spoke up.

"Blaise kissed me. I stopped it because I didn't want to kiss him. Thats all that happened." Draco said, slightly awkwardly, pulling herself to the edge of the bed and putting her feet down on the floor.

"Why didn't you say?" Harry said softly, taking a step forward and not breaking eye contact.

"You didn't exactly give me a chance, did you?" she said ruefully.

"Yeah – I'm sorry about that."

"And I'm sorry about throwing you across the room,"

"I deserved it,"

"Yes, you did," Draco said teasingly, keeping her eyes on Harry's. He reached forward, slightly hesitant, and placed his hand on her arm. There was no spark but a warm heat began to spread from the one point of contact to the rest of their bodies. He moved his fingers slowly up her arm, causing shivers of pleasure to run through Draco's body.

He continued to drag his fingers slowly up, leaving burning trails on her bare skin, all the while staring straight into her eyes. Suddenly the tank top and pajama pants she was wearing seemed like far too much clothing. His hand came to a rest cupping her cheek and she tilted her head up. He closed the last bit of space between them and bent down, his free hand bracing himself against the bed as he softly pressed his lips against hers.

The same fire that had come from his hand was now coming from his lips as they moved against hers. Draco moaned softly and reached up to weave one of her hands through the hair at the nape of his neck. She felt the veela magic bubbling up inside her but instead of rushing out and taking control it was much slower, flowing through all parts of her body making each kiss, each touch a thousand times more intense. She leaned back onto the bed and pulled him with her, kissing him more deeply as her body arched up against his.

He turned his attention from her mouth to her jawline, planting soft kisses there and down her neck causing her to moan again as her head fell back onto the comforter. Draco took the hand that wasn't twisted into Harry's hair and began to work it under his t-shirt, feeling the taut muscle hidden by the baggy clothes. She decided that one hand couldn't do justice to what was under that shirt and moved the other down, pulling the shirt up while Harry worked his way down, moving his lips from her jaw and neck to her collarbone.

There was a slam as someone threw open the door to the dormitory and stormed in. Alex sat up abruptly and Harry jumped to his feet, both staring at the intruder. Daphne strode in and looked down her nose at the two of them. Draco's face was flushed and Harry's glasses were slightly askew.

"Sorry to interrupt but some of us have to get our beauty sleep before going to class tomorrow morning," she said airily, though the glint in her eye gave away how truly delighted she was to have barged in. Pansy stepped into the room looking guiltily at Draco.

"Sorry, I tried to stop her." Draco sat up and composed herself.

"My apologies, Daphne. Harry was just leaving." She reached down to grab the invisibility cloak and handed it to Harry, who still looked slightly shell-shocked. She stood up and whispered into Harry's ear:

"Apology accepted."

* * *

**A/N: Hope you all enjoy!**

**A/N: My apologies - I meant Daphne Greengrass instead of Astoria, thanks to those of you who pointed it out! And for those who care I did fine on my quiz :P **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: As always, thanks for the reads/reviews/etc! Hope you enjoy this chapter! **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = The wonderful J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter 11

Harry knew from personal experience how fast gossip traveled around Hogwarts and therefore he knew that once news of his foray into the Slytherin girl's dormitory was made public it would not be long before everyone in the school knew. However, when he walked into the Great Hall there was no explosion of whispered conversations or turned heads. Confused, he glanced over at the Slytherin table looking for Alex and was even more confused when he saw her chatting amicably with Daphne. He didn't get a chance to talk to Alex alone until much later that day when he held her after Potions.

"I assumed that Daphne would have told the whole school about last night by now," he said bluntly, looking at Alex with a questioning gaze as she packed up the rest of her potions kit.

"For now, its _our little secret_" she sneered at the phrase. "Daphne's a true Slytherin, she'll use that information however she can to get what she wants. Right now, that's popularity and acceptance, which she thinks she can get by pretending to be friends with Pansy and me."

"Huh…" Harry said, thoroughly confused.

"You sound a little disappointed," Alex said teasingly, looking up at Harry as she started to make her way out of the classroom.

"Well, out of all the rumors that have circulated around the school about me, a story about being caught in a beautiful girl's bed would definitely be one of the best," Harry said, smiling roguishly.

"You just want the reputation boost!" Alex joked as they walked out of the classroom, her voice thick with false scandal.

"Oh, trust me, I don't need a reputation boost," Harry replied as he tried to make a suave expression.

Alex brought a hand up to her mouth in an attempt to stop the laughter that was threatening to explode but failed miserably and started to laugh uncontrollably, the sound reverberating down the empty hallway. Harry maintained his serious expression for about a beat longer before joining her in laughter.

* * *

Despite Alex's assurances, Harry still expected the story to be around the school within the next few days. It wasn't until the following Monday morning that he finally started to relax, entering the Great Hall without his ears strained, listening for his name on the tongues of his classmates. He grabbed a quick piece of toast before joining Hermione and Ron on the way to class.

When the seventh year class arrived to Transfiguration a tawny cat with spectacle markings around its eyes greeted them. Familiar now with Professor McGonagall's animagus form they all acknowledged the feline as they filed into their respective seats. Professor McGonagall remained perched on the desk in cat form until everyone had arrived, at that point leaping off of her desk and returning to human form.

"Today we will begin learning about the theory and process of animagus transformation. Although you will not be required to complete the process it is expected that NEWT transfiguration students understand the theory and magic behind the transformation." She paused, and surveyed the classroom. "However, if you so choose, and if you possess the ability, I will assist you in becoming an animagus."

Harry felt a small thrill of excitement and he could practically hear Hermione buzzing next to him. He'd considered the possibility of becoming an animagus before, but it had always been more along the lines of how his father and godfather had done it. The rest of the class seemed to be similarly excited. Chatter broke out among the students but McGonagall quieted them with a stare.

"The first and most essential part of becoming an animagus is discovering what form you will take. There are several methods, all of which are outlined on page 273 in your textbook, but given your class's particular proficiency with the Patronus charm, that is the method we will use." At this she smiled at Harry, and the rest of the class, excluding the Slytherins, snickered, recalling their times with the DA.

"Although many of you already know what form your patronus takes I would like you to practice casting and familiarizing yourselves with the form your Patronus takes – pay attention to the details. You must completely understand your animagus form before you make any attempts to actually transform."

* * *

Soon the classroom was filled silvery figures, but the most magnificent by far was Harry's stag, standing majestic and nearly opaque beside him. Draco groaned in frustration as she tried once more to cast the Patronus charm, achieving nothing more than a small cloud silver fog that was gone nearly as soon as it appeared.

"_Expecto _PATRONUM!" She nearly yelled, jabbing her wand into the air. It emitted a few angry red sparks but nothing resembling a patronus.

"Did you learn the Patronus charm at Beauxbatons?" Draco jumped as Harry came up behind her. She turned around, finding herself face to face with his stag patronus, which was standing calmly behind him. It was absolutely beautiful and she was tempted for a moment to reach out but restrained herself, instead clenching her hands into fists at her sides.

"Um, no. Well, only in theory." She fibbed. She had learned the Patronus charm, though perhaps not as thoroughly as the rest of her classmates.

"You're lucky you've never had to use it before now," Harry said quietly, looking up at his own patrons. Draco shivered – she knew, perhaps as well as Harry, the chilling effect dementors had. Voldemort had kept several with him at all times and had used them as guards around Malfoy Manor when it was his base of operations. It was nearly impossible to sleep knowing that there was very little keeping those creatures from coming in and kissing you in the middle of the night.

"Well, if you want, I could help you – I did sort of teach most of this class how to do them anyways," Harry said modestly. Draco was about to respond when Professor McGonagall began to address the class and they both turned to listen.

"I would like you all to continue to familiarize yourselves with your respective patronuses as well as to write a short essay on the advantages and disadvantages of becoming an animagus. Also, Mr. Potter, if you would come see me." Harry nodded at Professor McGonagall before turning back to Draco.

"So, do you want to see if I can teach you anything?" Harry said with a smile.

"Yes, I'd appreciate that, thanks," Draco said with a small laugh.

"Great," Harry said, smiling widely, "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." Draco replied, smiling right back.

* * *

Harry said goodbye to Alex and walked over to the front of the classroom where McGonagall was waiting. She looked extremely amused, her eyes twinkling in a manner very reminiscent of Dumbledore. Harry approached cautiously.

"It seems like you and Ms. Dubois have become friendly,"

"Um, yeah, I guess," Harry responded, blushing slightly. Had McGonagall heard something?

"That's good, the, _transition_, has been difficult for her." Harry nodded, still slightly suspicious.

"Is that what you wanted to talk about, Professor?"

"No, no, I talked with Kingsley recently – he would like you to resume your council position, to some extent,"

"Oh, yeah…" Harry had nearly forgotten. One of the many honors and offers he had received in the months after the war ended was a position on the minister's advisory council. He had attended the meetings regularly during the summer but had stopped as soon as school had started.

"He understands that to attend the meetings regularly would be an interruption of your schooling," Harry could tell this was more McGonagall's opinion than Kingsley's "However, he would still like to meet with you on a regular basis. Would you be willing to meet with him later this week?"

"Yeah, of course,"

"I will let him know," McGonagall said with a smile, "Thank you, Harry."

* * *

The next day Draco walked quickly back to the dorm to drop off her things before turning around and nearly ran bodily into Pansy on her way out of the dorm room.

"Woah, Alex, where are you running off to?" Pansy inquired, blocking the doorway.

"Studying, excuse me," she said as she tried to squeeze past Pansy. Her path was blocked as Pansy extended an arm, barring the doorway.

"And would this studying in any way involve a certain boy?" She asked, eyebrows raised.

"He's just helping me with my patronus," Draco mumbled. "Now can I please go? I'm going to be late,"

Pansy raised her arms in defeat letting Draco pass.

* * *

Blaise watched from the common room as Alex rushed out. He'd been trying desperately to act normally around her but it was difficult not to analyze everything she did and compare it to Draco. It was even more difficult because everything she did was so much like Draco he didn't know how he didn't notice it before.

He made his move several minutes later when Pansy left the dorm toting a large bag of textbooks. Making his way down the hall he slipped into the girl's dorm room, closing the door behind him before going over to Alex's bed. While all the other girls had pictures, books, magazine and any other number of things piled on their night stands or pinned around their bed Alex's area was completely clear. She had a small clock on her nightstand but otherwise every surface and every wall was bare. A small wave of guilt hit him as he saw the ruffled sheets where the house elves hadn't remade her bed yet but continued to search – he had to know the truth. Blaise started with the nightstand and the wardrobe but both were clear.

He made his way around the foot of the bed where her trunk was and popped it open. It was completely empty. He felt a small surge of relief laced with disappointment. Maybe he had misheard Pansy, maybe Alex was exactly who she claimed to be. But if that was the case then Draco was really dead. He reached down into the bottom of the trunk just to check the corners when his fingers brushed something that was definitely not the bottom of the trunk. Pulling his hand out he surveyed the the trunk again seeing nothing amiss. However, when he reached down again his hand encountered the same object, his fingers stopping a couple of inches above the bottom of the trunk. He ran his fingers around the edge and found the bottom of the hidden object, lifting it out of the trunk. A thick, leather bound book seemed to materialize in his hand. The embossed title read _The History and Lineage of the House of Malfoy. _

"Bloody hell," Blaise muttered. He sat down, leaning against the bed and opened the book in his lap. He noticed the corner of something else sticking up out of the book and flipped it open to that page. The name _Demetrius Malfoy_ was emblazoned at the top of the page but what interested Blaise far more was the picture that slid into his lap. It was a picture of Draco and his parents – he looked about fourteen and was wearing his characteristic smirk. Narcissa was leaning down towards Draco in the picture; it looked like she was trying to convince him to smile while Lucius stared coldly into the camera.

Blaise stared at the photo for several minutes before picking up the folded magazine page that had also fallen into his lap. Unfolding it he stared blankly at the vapid headline before his eyes caught a small blip of a story in the corner.

_Malfoy heir alive?_

* * *

Harry pushed open the door of the abandoned classroom to find Alex sitting in the window frame on the far side of the room. Her face was completely relaxed and open but her grey eyes were sad as she stared out onto the grounds. In the rosy light from the setting sun she looked so fragile and vulnerable that Harry's first instinct was to protect her; to banish whatever was causing her pain.

"You're staring, Potter." She said, turning towards him, the sorrow vanishing from her eyes and a small smile playing on her lips. "And you're late."

"Uh, um, yeah, quidditch practice ran late…" he mumbled.

"So, how are we going to do this?" she jumped off the window ledge and crossed the room, coming to a stop in front of where Harry stood, still frozen in the doorway.

"Well, I was thinking we could go back to the basics…. You know the incantation, right?" She nodded.

"And you know that the power for a Patronus comes from a happy memory? The happier the better." At this Alex scoffed. He raised an eyebrow, but continued.

"So why don't you just try a couple times, see how far you can get?"

* * *

"I've done this before, why the bloody hell can't I do it now?" Draco groaned, several failed attempts later.

"I thought you said you'd only ever studied the theory?" Harry asked.

"Of course I cast it as well, it just wasn't required of us to be able to cast it," Draco said hastily.

"What form did it take?"

"A dragon," she gasped and looked at Harry, fearing that she had given too much away. To her relief, rather than looking suspicious Harry looked thoroughly amused. "What, not what you expected?"

"No, but it kind of fits." He said laughingly, "You've definitely got the temper of a dragon."

Draco sneered but once again tried to cast the spell, this time picturing firmly in her mind the silvery form of her Patronus.

"_Expecto Patronum!" _This time she at least got a slight silver fog but even that dissipated quickly. As she groaned in frustration again, Harry was desperately trying not to laugh.

"Maybe it's your memories that are the problem, are you sure they're happy enough? Why don't you try something from your childhood," To tell the truth Draco hadn't really been thinking of any memories in particular, but she took Harry's advice and tried to pick a happy memory from her childhood. _The first time my father told me he was proud of me… _

She had been about six or seven at the time and despite the constant love and attention she received from her mother all she had really wanted, even then, was her father's approval. Her father had returned home one day with a present for her – a child's broom. She had gleefully run outside, broom in hand, and leapt up into the air. She soared around as fast and as high as the little broom would take her before landing gracefully in front of her father. He leaned down and said _That was wonderful, I'm proud of you, Draco._

Holding the image of her father's face as he said those words firmly in her mind she cast the spell again. A large silver dragon began to emerge from the tip of her wand, wings extending nearly the width of the classroom and she looked gleefully at Harry who was smiling widely. But then the image of her father morphed from the Lucius of her childhood to Lucius the last time she had seen him, drunk and haggard, unable to even look her in the eyes. She faltered, her wand hand dropping and the dragon patronus disappeared.

"Alex, are you okay? What happened?" Harry said, walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Nothing, it just wasn't a good enough memory." She said, brushing him off and fighting the angry tears that were threatening to fall. If she couldn't use any happy memories from her past, she was going to have to try a more recent happy memory. _My happiest memory since this summer…_ she flushed as she realized what it was. She pulled up the night with Harry on the quidditch pitch and once again cast the charm.

A silvery figure quickly flew out of her wand but this one was much smaller than the dragon that had briefly emerged before. It flew in several graceful circles around the classroom before landing on a desk near the two awestruck figures.

"A _phoenix,_" Harry said reverently. All Draco could do was stare in disbelief at the silver bird in front of her.

"But…no, it can't be, it was _just _a dragon, my patronus has _always_ been a dragon, it can't be anything else…" she sat down heavily in the nearest desk, a stunned look still on her face. The phoenix gave her one last serene look before flying away out the window, slowly fading as it moved away.

"Sometimes," Harry said softly, "your patronus can change, when you've faced some sort of change..."

"A change…" Draco said to herself. She looked up at Harry and the concern in his eyes pushed her over the edge. _Its not just _a _change, its too many changes. _Harry placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her but she stood up abruptly.

"I can't – I'm sorry… I have to go," she gave him one last pained look before rushing out of the classroom.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I am so so happy to finally be on break and have a chance to pick up this story again! I apologize if I'm a bit rusty - its been a while since I've done anything non-school related or creative or anything like that. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: The entire wonderful world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter 12

Alex rushed out of the classroom and back to the Slytherin common room, nearly knocking over a couple of first years on her way. Her cheeks were burning and she was desperately trying to keep her emotions under control. Despite everything, she'd almost gotten to the point where she was comfortable with this new life but her patronus changing…

_My patronus was me, the dragon! Draco… but now? Who am I? _She thought as she violently turned another corner. She had lost herself, particularly when it came to Harry Potter. Draco Malfoy would never have even willingly spent time with Potter, let alone been friendly with him. And falling for him? Snogging him? The idea was laughable. She pushed her way through the common room, ignoring the curious glances. The angry tears finally began to fall as she made it to the dormitory, hoping to close herself off from the rest of the world. This plan was disrupted, however, when she noticed somebody else sitting on her bed.

"I _really_ can't talk right now, Blaise," she said, rubbing the back of her forearm against her eyes, attempting to cover any evidence of tears. He looked up, but didn't say anything, just stared intently at her face as if trying to solve a riddle. It was then that she noticed he had something sitting in his lap – a large book, a magazine article, and a picture… her stomach dropped.

"I _really _think we should, _Draco_," Blaise said icily. Alex's knees gave out and she sat down heavily on the edge of Pansy's bed.

"I-" she started, lost for words. A thousand lies rushed through her head, intricate reasons why she might have the book or the photo or the article but all that came out was:

"I'm sorry," The tears that she had been trying to hold back started to flow and she ashamedly dropped her head into her hands and began to sob.

This was obviously not what Blaise expected to hear. The angry expression dropped from his face and reached out in an attempt to comfort her. His hand hovered for a moment, unsure of where go but settled on her shoulder, patting it several times.

"Hey, uh, it's okay, um, mate. I'm, uh, well I'm glad you're not dead." He said awkwardly, still patting Alex's shoulder. She sniffled and wiped her eyes before looking over at Blaise.

"Thanks…" she said hesitantly. Blaise patted her shoulder several more times before returning to his seat on Alex's bed. The room was silent for a couple minutes before Blaise finally spoke.

"So… you are Draco?"

"Yes."

"And you're a girl."

"Yes."

"And we kissed." She snorted, but still replied.

"Yes."

"This is really fucked up."

"Yes, yes it is."

They were both silent for several more minutes as Blaise seemed to mull over what he had just discovered.

"So, uh, what happened?" Alex sighed and relayed the story to Blaise, from the moment of her grandmother's visit to the present, although she left out several main parts, namely anything to do with Potter.

"Is it permanent?" Alex's stomach roiled but she still replied.

"As far as I'm aware, yes."

"Wow, mate, well, that bloody sucks." Blaise said succinctly. Alex nodded. For the third time the two lapsed into an awkward silence.

"You seemed pretty upset when you walked in here earlier – is everything okay?" Blaise asked, almost hesitantly.

"Do you care?" She asked, raising and eyebrow.

"You are still my best mate and whatever or whoever you are, yes, I do still care." Blaise stared right at her as he declared this.

"Um, thanks," Alex said, smiling slightly. "Its nothing, just dealing with this," she gestured at herself, "is hard." Her voice caught in her throat slightly as she remembered the patronus incident but she suppressed it.

"And I can't believe you told Pansy and not me!" Blaise said jokingly. Alex laughed and replied.

"I didn't tell Pansy anything, she figured it out after one look at me."

"Besides the obvious, you really aren't that different." Blaise observed. Alex sighed.

"That's debatable, but thanks."

"And you make one hell of a woman, mate." Alex laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you alone now…" Blaise said, getting up. He walked over to where she was sitting on Pansy's bed and seemed to debate for a moment before cuffing her lightly on the shoulder. "See you."

She nodded slightly, staring straight ahead until she heard the door to the dormitory close. Sighing, she moved back to her own bed and pulled the curtains shut, Blaise's revelation mixing in with the thoughts of her patronus' new form.

* * *

"Alex!" A muffled cry came from somewhere near her bed. Burying her face farther into the pillow she managed to ignore it. The next cry, however, was followed by the bright light of day spilling through the open curtains. Standing in the ray of sunlight was Pansy, staring down her nose at her friend.

"Really, Alex, we have class in five minutes." Pansy admonished and strode back over to her bad, gathering her books into a bag as Alex managed to push herself up onto one elbow. Despite all the dark thoughts in her head last night she must have fallen asleep at some point. She was still fully dressed in yesterday's uniform and hadn't even made it under the covers. The clock on her nightstand indicated that it was indeed five minutes until class started, a fact that got her moving a little bit faster.

She pulled on a new uniform, pushed her hair back and started grabbing the necessary books while Pansy smirked and looked on from the doorway. The rest of the dormitory was empty, the other girls having woken early enough to make it down to breakfast. Alex slipped the last book into her satchel and took one last look around the room, catching the evidence Blaise had uncovered of her former life laying on her bed for the world to see. Quickly throwing it in the trunk and locking it she turned to run out the door, noting that she would have to find a better hiding place for it later today.

It was still early enough in the year that it wasn't extremely cold outside yet but the house elves had started lighting the fires around the castle regardless. Even in the cool Slytherin dungeons it was a little too warm and in the rush of getting ready Alex had pushed her sleeves up above her elbows in an attempt to cool down.

"You didn't have to wait…" Alex said grumpily as she pushed past Pansy, who was still gleefully watching her frantic attempts at getting ready.

"But then I would've missed you trying to put your uniform on backwards, and forgetting a tie…" Pansy joked, still smirking. Alex's hand jumped up to her neck where she just found skin. She turned around to find Pansy standing with a green and silver tie, already knotted, in her hand.

"Thanks, Pansy," she said, turning around to grab the tie. As she reached out her left hand to grab it Pansy let out a small gasp. Alex followed her friend's gaze down to her left forearm. She hastily pulled down her sleeve, grabbed the tie and kept walking while Pansy remained frozen several steps behind her. She pulled out her wand and ran it over the offending area before turning around and walking back to Pansy.

"Look, its nothing! Okay?" She said, pushing up her sleeve again, this time revealing a smooth, pale stretch of skin. "Now we have to go."

Pansy still didn't move, but stared straight at Alex, her eyes full of sadness and little bit of pity.

"Draco…" she almost whispered, reaching out towards her. Alex ducked away from her hands and glared at her friend.

"We're late."

* * *

"Alex! You can't keep doing this, you've got to talk to me!" Harry nearly yelled from across the potions classroom. Alex had been avoiding him since the Patronus incident and all of his attempts to talk to her today had been met with a solid barrier of silence. Their lack of communication had resulted in their potion spewing across the classroom and landed both of them in detention cleaning it up muggle style. He set his mop against the wall and turned to face Alex where she was wiping down some of the desks.

"We've got nothing to talk about," Alex responded without turning around.

"Alex. Look at me, please," Harry said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She slowly turned around but avoided his eyes. "I don't know what it was about the Patronus thing that freaked you out this badly, but you can talk to me about it!"

Alex pursed her lips and looked off to the side, not saying anything. Harry took a step and threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

"This hot and cold attitude of yours is infuriating, you know that?" He crossed his arms as she continued to focus solely on the task at hand. "C'mon, you can let me know what's going on!"

She paused, hand clenched and gritted out "Its none of your business!"

"Alex, I just want to help." Harry tried to keep his tone soft but he was so riled up the words came out harshly, sounding more like an insult. That was when Alex cracked. She slammed her fist down onto the table and turned to face Harry. All she had wanted after the Patronus incident was a few minutes to think to herself, to figure out what the hell was going on in her life and maybe be able to gain a little control, but with Blaise finding out who she really was the night before, the incident with Pansy that morning and now Potter interrogating her… she couldn't take it anymore.

"That's just like Saint-fucking-Potter," she spat out, pouring as much venom into_ Potter_ as she could. Fighting with him was familiar territory, she knew exactly what to say to set him off and as the words continued to pour uninhibited out of her mouth she could see the anger building up inside Harry.

"Thinking you can _help_ everyone, sticking your nose in everyone else's business, well, some of us would be better off if you just left us the _hell _alone!" She was now toe-to-toe with Harry, her faces inches from his as she delivered the last words. His entire face was flush and eyes were glowing with rage as his fists clenched and unclenched at his side.

She wanted him to curse her, to hit her, to yell back, to do something, anything that he would have done to Draco in this situation. The one constant throughout her entire time at Hogwarts was her relationship with Harry – no matter how bad things were at home, how scared she was for her life, no matter how much things changed, her relationship with Harry never did. He would always be short-tempered, easy to set off and would always respond the same way. She could tell he was right on the edge of doing something, his right hand inching towards his wand.

"What, did I make you angry, Potter?" Alex said, arrogantly smirking and counting down the seconds until he exploded. Laced in with all the anger he was desperately trying to control was pain and a small voice at the back of her head was crying out, trying to get her to stop, to apologize, to stop hurting him but she pushed it away. This was the first time since she had changed that she felt like her old self, like Draco Malfoy again, and she wasn't going to give that up. She was in control. Just a little bit more and he would break…

She opened her mouth to deliver the final blow but Harry moved first. She reached for her wand laying on an adjacent desk but her hand never made it, instead stopping in mid-air as Harry's lips crashed down onto hers.

* * *

Harry wasn't sure why he did it – he was so angry and hurt that it hardly seemed the logical recourse but he knew he had to do something, something to stop the damage that Alex was doing.

She was already standing so close that their chests were bumping with each breath and it was a matter of inches between his face and her own. His lips came down hard on hers and it was only a moment before she responded just as passionately. The kiss was violent, almost desperate. He wrapped one arm tightly around her waist, pressing her up against him, relishing the feel of their bodies meeting. The other he moved up to the nape of her neck, wrapping his fingers up in her hair, holding her head in his palm. Her hands were on his chest; he could feel her nails through the thin fabric of his shirt as she grasped at him. She wrapped one leg around his and they stumbled backwards, lips locked until they hit a desk. He moved both of his hands to her waist and lifted her small frame up until she was perched upon the edge of the desk, at which point she wrapped both of her legs around him. Both of them were breathing heavily, even as the kisses began to slow down.

Running one hand up her side, Harry brought it to rest on her cheek stroking the fine bone as he kissed her softly. As she pressed her lips lightly against his he felt a tear fall on his hand and he pulled away.

"Dammit, Potter…" Alex said, wiping a tear from her eye. "That's not what you were supposed to do…"

Harry took her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing the tear away. He placed his other hand on her thigh and looked straight into her eyes.

"Alex…" he said softly and she felt a strange warmth spreading from her chest. "I don't know what scared you the other day, or what made you so angry or even if there is anything I can do about it… maybe I should've just left you alone… but I can't now because, well, because I really care about you, Alex."

She let out a shuddering sigh and buried her face into Harry's shoulder; sliding off of the desk she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Despite everything, all the panic and fear she was feeling earlier, how messed up her entire situation was, hearing him say that he cared about her sent a jolt of happiness through her entire system. He wrapped his arms around her waist and they both stood there for a moment, perfectly still.

Eventually Alex loosened her grip and stepped back. She looked up at Harry and reluctantly began.

"I care about you too, Harry," Again, even just saying his name sent a small thrill down her spine. "But, I can't…" her voice caught in her throat.

"So much has changed for me, in such a short time, I'm not sure I can do… whatever this is, whatever we are, until I figure some things out…" she didn't want to say it, but she knew she had to.

"I understand," Harry said, smiling, but she could tell it was just as difficult for him to do this as it was for her. "You need some time to get things sorted… but you're not going to go all silent on me again, are you?" he joked.

"No, not planning on it," she said with a sad smile.

"Good, so friends?"

"Yeah, friends." They both stared awkwardly at each other, unsure of what to do next until Harry stuck his hand out. Laughingly Alex grabbed and shook it lightly.

"Okay, so, I guess we should finished cleaning?" Alex looked around the room – at least half of the desks were still covered with their potion and a good portion of the floor and walls.

"Yeah, I guess," she said reluctantly. Walking back over to the last desk she had been cleaning she grabbed the rag and began to work again. After a minute or so she looked over to where Harry was mopping.

_Why him? _She thought morosely. _As if switching genders and suddenly being interested in guys wasn't enough, I had to fall for the one guy I couldn't stand before, the one guy things will _never_ work out with. _

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed! As always, reviews are extremely appreciated. **

**A/N: Mostly for my own sake I will be referring to Draco only as Alex from now on. Other characters may still call her Draco, but it was getting confusing switching between the two monikers. The idea is also that she's starting to think of herself as Alex more than Draco. **


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hello all! As always, so flattered and appreciative of all the reads and reviews, particularly when I haven't been able to post in so long! Figured I'd put this little snippet up as a promise and reminder that I haven't abandoned this story! **

**Disclaimer: Everything Harry Potter is the property of the magnificent J.K. Rowling. **

* * *

Chapter 13

Harry sighed and threw his head back in frustration, staring upside down at the spines of the library books on the shelf behind him. For the past few days, no matter what he tried he could not get what had happened in the potions classroom out of his head. He couldn't get _Alex _out of his head. Every time he closed his eyes he was transported back into that memory; feeling her hands running down his sides, her legs wrapped around his waist, her lips soft on his… heat began to creep up his neck and he gave his head a quick shake to banish the memory.

"Dammit…" he muttered. _Friends. They were just friends. _He had agreed to just being friends, and had meant it when he said he was fine with that, did still mean it, but his mind couldn't seem to stop reminding him that he wanted to be so much more than friends.

Exasperated, Harry let his head drop to the table, resting it on a half written essay about the proper lunar cycles in which to plant certain magical herbs. Hermione looked up at the _thunk _his head made when it connected with the table and chuckled softly.

"You okay there, Harry?"

"Mmhmm…" Harry replied, not moving he head off the table but merely rolling it to the side so that he was facing Hermione. Her eyes ran quickly over his face, sparkling with amusement and the corners of her mouth began to turn up.

"Wha-" He started to ask what was so funny but was interrupted by a soft, recognizable laugh coming from behind him. He immediately straightened, pulling his head off the table and turned to see Alex walking by with Pansy and Blaise flanking her.

"Hey, Alex!" He said, then quickly greet Blaise and Pansy as well. Alex let out a short laugh but reined it into an amused smile before responding.

"Hey, Harry… looks like your essay is going well," she said smiling broadly, but not making eye contact, her eyes instead hovering slightly above Harry's own.

"Yeah, I guess…" he said, confused. He ran a hand quickly over his forehead and into his hair but didn't feel anything wrong or out of place. Blaise and Pansy began to laugh and Hermione chuckled softly as well as Harry glanced from person to person attempting to figure out what the joke was.

"SILENCE in the library!" Madame Pince said in an exaggerated whisper as she swooped down on the small group. She gestured at the Slytherins to keep moving and they did so, settling at one of the tables further down the aisle. Harry turned to watch Alex walk away and received a glare from Madame Pince whose eyes darted quickly to Harry's forehead.

"I think you will find, Mr. Potter, it is generally more effective to write one's essays on parchment rather than one's own forehead." She said before stalking off, searching for another group of students to silence. Harry reached up and ran his hand across his forehead again, his eyes widening and cheeks flushing as he noticed the black ink left on his fingers when he brought them down. Laughing silently, Hermione pulled out a small compact mirror and passed it over to him. He held it up to his face and saw that the last few lines of his essay were very clearly inked across his forehead and the side of his face. The ink must have still been wet when he had laid his head down on the essay.

Harry pulled the edge of his sleeve up and attempted to wipe some of the writing off, the flush on his cheeks deepening as he realized what a prat he must have looked like to Alex with all that ink smudged across his forehead, but it only spread the ink across more of his forehead, giving his skin all a grayish tint.

"Bollocks…" Harry muttered.

"Come on," Hermione said, still laughing slightly, "We can go back to the Common Room and wash it off before heading to dinner."

Harry nodded and gathered up his things. He attempted to push his bangs down to cover the dark stains on his forehead but gave up, knowing from his previous attempts to cover his scar that it was hopeless.

"So, Harry," Hermione started once they made it out of the library, "When are you going to tell me what is going on between you and Alex?"


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:**** Hoping to update more frequently now that its summer but I'm also crazy and ****still taking classes, so I still don't have as much time to write. Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter 14

_"So, Harry," Hermione started once they made it out of the library, "When are you going to tell me what is going on between you and Alex?"_

Harry sighed. What was going on between him and Alex? One day they were friends, the next not speaking, and the next snogging…

"I'm honestly not sure…" Harry replied, explaining the hot and cold nature of their relationship to Hermione, "… I mean, you saw what happened in potions the other day and then afterwards while we were cleaning up –"

"Mr. Potter, good, I was just looking for you!" He looked up to see McGonagall rushing towards him. "The Minister of Magic has just arrived and is waiting for you in my office," she explained. Harry had completely forgotten that he was supposed to meet with Kingsley tonight and self-consciously reached up, attempting to rub more of the ink off of his forehead.

"Thanks, Professor. I'll head there now."

"I expect the rest of the story later, Harry!" Hermione said as he walked off behind McGonagall. Harry shook his head and tried to focus his thoughts on the meeting ahead.

When they made it to McGonagall's office Harry saw Kingsley Shacklebolt leaning against the edge of the fireplace, staring into the flames. He cut a much more stately and impressive figure than Cornelius Fudge ever had but Harry could tell that the job was definitely wearing on him by the new wrinkles around the corners of his eyes. Despite the fact that they had won the war and were supposed to be in a time of peace, dealing with the after effects of the war was nearly as bad as it had been in the days and months leading up to it. As soon as Kingsley noticed Harry, however, he turned and broadly smiled, his teeth a shocking white against his dark skin.

"Harry! Good to see you, lad," he boomed across the room, walking over to clap Harry on the shoulder and leading him over to the two armchairs in front of the fire. "Thanks for finding him, Minerva, I'll get your office back to you in an hour or so,"

"Not to worry, Kingsley, take however much time you need," McGonagall said as she exited. Harry sat down and helped himself to some of the sandwiches sitting on the small table between the two of them since he was going to be missing dinner.

"How's being back at Hogwarts, Harry?" Kingsley asked.

"Good, a little strange still, but good. It was definitely the right decision to come back," Harry said.

"I have to agree, however much I would've liked to have you and Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley at the Ministry full time." He replied with a small laugh. Harry gave a small laugh as well, covering his mouth to hide the huge bite of sandwich he was still chewing on. He finished chewing and swallowed quickly and then asked Kingsley what he had come to tell Harry about.

"I'm mostly here to give you an update on how things are progressing, how some of the projects you started are going, et cetera, but I would also like to consult you about a new organization that seems like they might be trying to revive some of Voldemort's idealogy." Harry raised an eyebrow.

"A new organization?" Kingsley nodded and waved his wand, summoning a file and laying it out on the table between them.

"They're calling themselves the Society for the Preservation of Wizarding History, it's actually an old society that has generally been very innocuous and inactive, occasionally protesting the destruction of an old castle or the sale of some ancient texts but they've never made enough noise to get the Ministry's attentions –that is until now."

The photo clipped to the front page of the file showed a group of six or seven wizards and witches, all above the age of sixty wearing extremely outdated robes and haughty looks. They also hardly moved, which was very odd for wizarding photos and Harry almost thought it was a muggle photo until he saw a woman in the back row reaching up to scratch her nose.

"In the past year their membership numbers have tripled and what's more interesting is who they're recruiting –" Kingsley flipped to the next page of the portfolio, which contained a long list of names. He scanned through the list quickly, and looked up at Kingsley.

"They're _all_ purebloods!" Harry said, recognizing a number of the family names from the lists of death eaters and Voldemort supporters. Kingsley nodded and continued solemnly.

"And not just purebloods, but members of the most prestigious wizarding lineages in the United Kingdom, even those that have fallen from grace. Now, they haven't yet said anything right out yet about pureblood superiority or any of that nonsense, but some of their recent press releases have been about restoring the wizarding community to its former glory, embracing our heritage…. Its all been very carefully phrased but they seem to be wanting to restore some form of hierarchy at best, and at worst…"

"At worst they want to pick up where Voldemort left off." Harry stated somberly. Kingsley nodded again, hands clasped under his chin. He released them and picked up the file, passing it to Harry.

"This is all the information we have on them right now – I'd like you to take a look over this and evaluate the threat level. It may be they're just blowing hot air, but we can't take these sorts of organizations lightly anymore. Of course you can share this with Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley but otherwise I ask that you keep any information about them to yourself."

Harry agreed and accepted the portfolio. He wanted to believe that this group was still the group of stiff old people from the photo but his instinct was telling him that there was something else going on with this group.

"Now for the good news portion," Kingsley said with a hearty laugh, lightening the mood. He continued to brief Harry on the many recent successes the ministry had been having, including tracking down some of the last remaining at large members of Voldemort's organization, repairing relations with the giants and the great quality of care the many war orphans were receiving at the ministry run facility Harry and Hermione helped set up. He'd make sure to pass that little tidbit on to Hermione.

Once Kingsley was done they said they're goodbyes and Harry made his way back to the dormitory, the file heavy in his hands.

* * *

Draco's eyes cracked open as a sliver of sunlight made it in through the curtains around her bed. She rolled over onto her other side and tried to recapture the dream she had been having. She couldn't remember exactly what it was but still felt warm from whatever had been happening when that pesky beam of sunshine had made it in. She remembered she had been in a classroom and somebody else had been there…touching her…and suddenly she remembered and floated back into the dreamy land half between waking and sleep.

She rolled onto her back and was in the Potion's classroom again, perched on the desk, limbs entwined around Harry… she smiled as she relived him kissing her, his hand tangled in her hair. Instead of stopping after that however he continued and she grasped at the sheet as in her mind he laid her down on the desk, planting kisses along her jaw. A phantom hand ran down from the nape of her neck and over one of her breasts. Her back arched as the hand made its way lower along the curve of her waist. In continued downwards, over to top of one thigh, running up the inside of her leg and then –

Draco yelped and sat straight up, slamming her thighs shut. She brought her hands to her face and took a couple deep shuddering breaths as she tried to slow her heart beat and erase everything that she had just been feeling, in the places she had just been – she shook her head and peered down through her hands at her clenched knees.

The curtain shook slightly and Draco looked up.

"Hey, Alex, you awake?" It was Pansy. Taking one last deep breath she replied, hoping that her face didn't give away the kind of dream she had just been having. It had been a week and a half since the incident in the Potions classroom and she was still thinking about it every, single night.

"Yes," she said, pulling the curtains aside and looking up at Pansy who was already completely dressed.

"You do remember that you promised to go to Hogsmeade with me today, don't you?" She said, arms crossed, tapping one of her feet.

"Of course I do, I just didn't realize that that meant having to be up at…" she glanced over at the clock on her nightstand, "8:00am? On a Saturday? Really Pansy, are we even allowed to go this early?" Draco shook her head – she couldn't remember the last time she had been up before 10:00am on a Saturday.

"We have a lot to get done today! Of course we have to get an early start – I have an appointment at Madame Fettiwhethers for my hair, two fittings _and _we have to find gowns and masks for the Halloween Ball. So come one, get ready!"

"I've told you – I'm not going to the stupid ball." Draco grimaced. For some unknown reason McGonagall had decided to replace the traditional feast with a _masquerade. _Something about letting the students have more fun, promoting inter-house mingling et cetera – all in all Draco thought the entire concept was ridiculous and was determined not to go. There was also the notion of having to find and wear a gown – she may be slowly accepting her fate but she was not sure if she was quite ready to go gown shopping yet.

"Snap out of your wet dream and get dressed, we've got to go!" Pansy snipped. Draco stood up and flushed from head to toe.

"Wha… I'm not having…what are you talking about?" She protested.

"We can all hear you moaning all night, Alex," Daphne teased from the other side of the room, where she was sitting at the vanity primping. "Ooooh, Harry, ooohhh, there Harry, yeeessss," she moaned, cackling when she finished.

Draco turned even redder, grabbed some clothes out of her dresser and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. The rest of the girls continued to laugh and she heard Daphne's voice float through the closed door.

"Oh, don't be such a prude, Alex, its totally normal, we all have them. Though, I have to say, you are _particularly_ loud – Potter must be gooood," she purred.

Draco walked over to the sink and splashed some cold water on her face, trying to calm down and think about anything but Harry. She managed to make it through getting ready for Hogsmeade by only thinking about the task at hand and nothing else. When she finally exited the bathroom Pansy was perched on the edge of her bed, inspecting her nails. She hopped up when Draco walked out and they began to make their way out of the castle.

"Hey, sorry I called you out like that, but to be honest it has been happening every night." Draco's cheeks went pink again and she tried to stutter out some sort of response but thankfully Pansy cut her off with a question.

"Has something else happened, I thought you decided to stop it while you decided whether you wanted it or not?"

"I did stop it and no, nothing else has happened. But that doesn't mean I've stopped thinking about _it_…"

"Well, you're obviously thinking about _it_ a lot. And thinking about _it _again, and again, and again…" Pansy teased. The blond girl glared at her dark haired friend, which did nothing but amuse her. They made their way to Hogsmeade and Draco dutifully tagged along as Pansy got her hair styled, fended off the seamstresses as they adjusted the fit of Pansy's school robes and continually reminded Pansy that she wasn't planning on attending the ball and therefore did not need a gown. Or a mask. Or heels. Or anything of that nature. Finally she'd had a little too much and had to get away briefly. She told Pansy she had a quick errand to run and ducked out of the stuffy little boutique and made her way to the only place in Hogsmeade she thought she could be alone.

* * *

Harry leaned against the fence and stared up at the Shrieking Shack, lost in thought. He had started out thinking about Sirius but his mind wandered and he was thinking again about the Society for the Protection of Wizarding History. He'd met with Kingsley the day before to give his report, not that there was much to say. They hadn't said anything particularly provocative nor done anything illegal and for all intents and purposes appeared to be harmless. But Harry couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that they were bad news. He was so focused on trying to find a solution to the problem that he didn't notice that someone had come up next to him until they started talking.

"Seems we have the same taste in places to be alone," Alex said with a rueful smile staring up at the decrepit house on the hill above them.

"Oh! Hey, yeah, I guess," Harry said, a little surprised by her presence. Particularly since she'd managed to appear during one of the few times that he hadn't just been thinking about her.

"So, what brings you out here?" She asked, turning towards him. The temperatures were starting to drop and the cold had but a little pink in both of Alex's cheeks. It made here look younger and more innocent, and happier, certainly happier than she had been looking lately. Harry smiled; glad to see her looking alive. Although neither really wanted to admit it they'd both been struggling since they'd decided to just be friends, albeit for slightly different reasons.

"Just needed to think a little bit, you?"

"I had to escape Pansy."

"Escape Pansy? Is something wrong between you two, I thought you were best friends?" She laughed lightly in response.

"No, no, nothings wrong. She is just a very intense shopper. She pulled me out of bed at 8:00am this morning to get started."

"Are we even allowed to leave for Hogsmeade that early? Are the shops even open?"

"I asked the same things, but apparently we can. I'm sure Pansy is one of the very few to take advantage of that."

Harry whistled, impressed at Pansy's dedication. Looking over at the girl he was head over heels for he gathered the courage to do something that he had been thinking about for a couple days.

"Alex, I was, uh, wondering, if, um, youwouldliketogototheballwithme." He blurted out, losing his courage about halfway through his sentence. In his plans he had been smooth and gentlemanly and she had said yes instantly. In reality, however, she looked at him blankly and asked:

"What?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to go to the ball with me. As friends of course, but I thought it might be fun, to, you know, spend the evening together…" Harry trailed off, hoping for her to chime in at any time and put him out of his misery.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but I'm not going." She said eventually, after what appeared to be a little internal debate. She looked away from him and back up at the Shrieking Shack.

"Why?" Harry blurted, "Wait, I'm sorry, its none of my busi-"

"I, uh, can't dance." She replied jerkily.

"Neither can I! We don't have to dance, we don't have to do anything…" Harry replied eagerly.

"Well I don't have a dress,"

"Doesn't Hogsmeade have-" Harry stopped himself as he looked at her. The lively pink flush was gone from her cheeks and she looked worried and uncomfortable and he felt terrible for making her feel that way. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry that's fine, I, uh, I'll see you around."

He began to walk away but she put a hand out, stopping him.

"I'm sorry, Harry – its not that I don't want to go with you, I just don't want to go."

Harry just nodded, cursing himself both for how badly he had embarrassed himself and how uncomfortable he had made her, particularly when they were just starting to talk easily again.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter = J.K. Rowling**

* * *

Chapter 15

The two weeks leading up to the Halloween Masquerade were two of the most miserable weeks Draco had ever endured at Hogwarts, including her sixth year. All anybody seemed to be able to talk about was the dance, boys and girls alike. But the girls were far worse, at least the guys weren't gushing about how they were going to do their hair, or what dress they were going to wear or any number of pointless things. Even Pansy was getting unbearable – she wouldn't stop talking about the Ravenclaw boy who had asked her or how well her mask would accentuate her features. Draco couldn't stand it. She'd taken to spending most of her time in abandoned classrooms but even there she couldn't escape the number one topic of conversation in the halls of Hogwarts.

Every single student was asking the same question – who is Harry Potter going to take to the ball? As soon as it became common knowledge that he didn't yet have a date every girl at Hogwarts set their sights on bagging the wizarding world's number one hero as their date. The only time she could talk to him was in class when his flock of suitors had to attend their own. Not that they were really talking anyway…

Draco stared down at her essay where she had let her quill linger a little to long on the dot of an eye and created an ink stain nearly the size of a knut. She had ended up in this abandoned classroom after a particularly tasteless comment about Pansy's date that she'd said only because she was in such a sour, sulky mood. Pansy had yelled at Draco, in the middle of the Slytherin common room, about how she was making herself miserable and just needed to accept the way things were.

More than the embarrassment of having personal details of her life flung at her across a crowded room what really stung was how true what she'd said was. Every single time she found herself close to acceptance, close to being happy, she pulled back, withdrew back inside the armor she'd always been so good at constructing. But any time she thought of moving on, accepting that she would never be Draco Malfoy again, confronting her feelings for Harry she started to feel a little queasy. What would her family think? How would her father react to his son, his only son, being in love with a man? She'd received a letter recently from her mother that, although it didn't say it straight out, made it very clear that her father was in just as bad shape as he had been when she'd left.

She crumpled up the ruined parchment and angrily threw it into the corner of the room. Did she want to go back to her old life? To be Draco Malfoy again, to be reviled…no, even if there was some way to get her old body back she was afraid she'd changed too much to ever be him again. She had no idea what she wanted. And in the process of figuring it out she seemed to be alienating the few people who cared about her.

* * *

"Hi Harry!"

Harry turned around abruptly to find the source of the greeting but couldn't match a face to the voice in crowded hall. He brushed it off as a coincidence and turned to keep moving when he heard his name.

"Harry!" He looked around again and this time caught a bit of motion directed his way. A tiny girl ran up to him who hardly looked old enough to attend Hogwarts and barely came up to Harry's stomach.

"Oh, hullo," he said, resisting the urge to kneel down and get on the little girl's level.

"Um, hi! Uh, well you probably don't remember me…" the girl said looking down at her feet, "But I'm Anna, I tried out for the quidditch team earlier this year," Harry didn't remember her at all but nodded as if he did. He was hoping she wasn't going to ask for an autograph, he'd finally gotten people to stop doing that.

"Well, I heard you don't have a date for the dance yet and I was wondering if you would want to go with me," she said, finally looking up from her feet. Harry's eyebrows almost went straight into his hairline. Sure, he'd had a lot of girls asking him to the dance but he wasn't expecting it from this girl.

"Oh, well, I'm flattered, but don't you think I'm a little old for you?" Harry said, awkwardly reaching a hand up and scratching his neck.

"I'm fifteen!" Anna said eagerly. Harry was speechless. He couldn't believe this tiny girl was only a few years younger than him.

"Wow, Potter, didn't know you were desperate enough to go cradle-robbing," Zabini called out from across the hall. Harry glared over at the crew of Slytherins hanging out against the opposite wall. When he turned back to let Anna down gently he found she was already running down the hall hands over her eyes.

"Wait, Anna! Don't listen to them…" Harry called out futilely; she was already gone. This response elicited more laughter from the Slytherins.

"Grow up, Zabini," Harry snarled.

"Oh come on, Potter. I did you a favor, she looked like a toddler,"

Harry just shook his head and pushed past them into the transfiguration classroom where he was immediately assailed by a pair of identical twins in Hufflepuff colors.

"Hi Harry," they said in perfect unison, beaming up at him.

"I'm Lizzie," the one on the right said.

"And I'm Joanie." The other one finished.

"And we're going to give you the chance to take one of us to the Halloween Masquerade!" They said again in unison.

"Or if you want to you could take both of us," the one Harry thought was Joanie said with a wink.

For the second time in five minutes Harry was speechless. He looked around the room for some sort of help. To his right Alex was sitting in her desk, very pointedly staring straight ahead and not looking at him. To his left his housemates were eagerly watching the scene, all seeming to be on the verge of exploding in laughter. Thankfully he was saved from having to respond by McGonagall as she came strutting into the classroom. She paused in front of the group and looked at both of the twins.

"Ms. Childs, Ms. Childs," she said, acknowledging both of the girls, "I would suggest you hasten to your own class because I am quite certain neither of you belong in NEWT level transfiguration."

Both girls rushed out of the classroom, chastened, and Harry gratefully sat down next to Hermione and Ron.

"This _has_ to stop," he said exasperatedly.

"C'mon, mate! You should be taking advantage of this – you could take two hot twins to the ball! How often are you going to get that offer?" Ron said, guffawing.

"Ronald!" Hermione gasped, elbowing her boyfriend.

"Ow!"

"I'm just not going to go," Harry announced, desperately trying not to look over at Alex. He'd been thinking about not going for a while, what was the point if he couldn't go with who he wanted to go with.

"NO!" Hermione, Ron, Dean and Seamus all exclaimed.

"You have to go, Harry! Masquerade's are so much fun!"

"It'll be so sad without you there!"

"Just bring any old girl, you can still have a good time,"

"If I have to go, you have to go,"

They all continued to barrage Harry with reasons of why he had to go to the masquerade until Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and began to teach. It looked like he was stuck with going, but who could he bring as a date? He continued to muse on this as Professor McGonagall started her lecture.

"At this point you should all be extremely familiar not only with your potential animagus form but also with the theory and magic behind becoming an animagus, so we will be moving on in class. However, for those interested in actually becoming animagi, I will be holding classes two nights a week in this classroom. Please raise your hand if you wish to continue the process and I will take down your name."

Nearly everyone in the class raised their hands, including Alex, much to Harry's surprise after her reaction to her patronus.

"I must warn you all now that not all of you will be able to become animagi. In the past years that I have offered this opportunity I have never had more than one or two students successfully complete the process each year. It is some of the most difficult and dangerous magic there is, as you would know if you had really studied the theory like I asked you to, and if I do not believe you capable I will ask you to leave the class. Now, I will give you a couple minutes to reconsider and ask again."

Harry's determination hadn't wavered but he could tell McGonagall's speech had shaken quite a few members of the class. He heard Dean and Seamus deep in discussion behind him, ultimately decided it wasn't worth giving up their evenings for. When McGonagall surveyed the class again only a handful of people raised their hands again. Among them were Harry, Ron, Hermione, Alex and a handful of Ravenclaws. She then proceeded to collect everyone's names and animagus forms. Harry, Ron and Hermione reported stag, terrier and otter respectively and then McGonagall made her way over to the other side of the room, collecting the names and animagus forms of the Ravenclaws.

"And, Miss Dubois, what form will your animagus take?"

"A phoenix."

It was nearly the most shocked Harry had ever see Professor McGonagall. There was a terse moment of silence as Alex glared up at Professor McGonagall as if expecting her to challenge her statement. But McGonagall pulled herself together and just hmm-ed, writing it down and making her way back up to the front of the classroom.

"Okay, today we will start working on wandless magic, which will require some in depth study of the source and nature of magic. This is far more difficult than casting a spell silently and requires even more concentration…"

McGonagall continued to lecture on but Harry spent most of class glancing over at Alex, attempting to figure out what she was thinking, puzzling over the patronus incident, just trying to figure her out…

* * *

Later that night on his way back from the quidditch pitch, where Harry had gone to avoid the glares he had been getting in the Gryffindor common room from who he assumed were Anna's friends, he ran into Luna who was skipping down one of the hallways humming to herself. Harry decided he might have the same solution to his masquerade problem as he did to Slughorn's party.

"Hey, Luna!" She stopped humming and skipping and did a small turn in the middle of the hallway.

"Hello Harry," she said in her normal dreamy voice. "How are you?"

"I'm good, Luna, how are you?"

"I'm good, too, thank you for asking. Do you want something," she asked, direct and surprisingly astute as always.

"No, well, are you going to the masquerade with anyone?"

"No, I'm going alone," she said very matter-of-factly.

"Do you want to go with me?"

"Oh, no thank you, Harry. I'd much rather go alone." If any other girl had said this to Harry he probably would've been offended but it was Luna and he had learned to expect anything from her. "You aren't supposed to bring a date to a masquerade, anyway," Luna reported.

"Oh, really?" Harry asked.

"Yes. At a masquerade you can't recognize anybody and you can get to know someone based only on who they are and not how they look. Its much more romantic that way, don't you think?" It was one of the most normal things that Luna had ever said, which was a little strange in itself, but the anonymity idea appealed to Harry. He hadn't been anonymous since he'd arrived at Hogwarts his very first day.

"Huh, thanks Luna, I think I'll go alone then," She smiled back at him.

"Good night, Harry," she said, waving as she skipped away, humming as she went.

"Night, Luna,"

* * *

The day of Halloween classes ended early and everyone rushed back to their dormitories to start getting ready. Halloween had fallen on a Thursday this year and not only had McGonagall let out classes early but she'd also cancelled classes on Friday.

Draco took advantage of the castle being empty to wander around on her own. She'd made up with Pansy after the comment she'd made in the common room the other day but she'd still been spending most of her time alone for the past few days. Blaise was still a little awkward around her since he'd found out who she actually was. She knew, well, hoped, that would pass because it had been pretty lonely for the couple of days Pansy hadn't been talking to her. She'd always thought she was strong enough to be alone but found that without Pansy or Blaise or Harry she was pretty miserable.

She also hadn't come to a decision yet about how to continue with her life. She couldn't continue on pretending that everything would go back to normal eventually, that this was some temporary setback that she had to live through.

_I'm still Draco – I can't completely abandon that…_ but she also wasn't the same.

As if on cue her head throbbed and she staggered over to the nearest wall and grasped at it for support. She'd nearly forgotten about this condition of her transformation it had been so long since she'd last had one.

_Its because you've been snogging Harry Potter _she thought as another lighting bolt of pain went through her head. She slid down the wall and held her head in her hands. The pain actually caused a moment a shocking clarity, a potential solution for her torn conscience. Surely if it was a matter of life or death she could forgive her attraction to Harry…

She could feel the heat of the veela magic activating and running through her veins, dulling the pain in her head. Draco couldn't let it take over and it took every bit of her self-control to stop the magic from completely controlling her. She knew from the beginning of the year what would happen if she gave in and she didn't want another encounter like that with anybody… well, almost anybody.

She stood up. It was amazing, once she had the magic under control she felt amazing, stronger than she ever had before and she made her way back to the Slytherin dormitory, confident in her path, feeling good for the first time in days. When she made it back to the common room it was full of people ready to go to the ball and although every girl in the room was dressed in their best gown with their hair done up and make up on they were invisible to their dates as she strutted through the room. The sheer attractive force of the veela magic was turning the men in the room into doddering fools and she smirked as they fell over each other trying to get to her. She left them in her dust, making her way up to the seventh year girl's dormitory to find Pansy.

When she walked in Pansy was already dressed and putting the finishing touches on her make-up. She turned around when Draco entered.

"Pansy, I'm going."

Pansy squealed, ran up and hugged her tightly.

"I knew you'd change your mind!" She then ran over to her bed and reaches under, pulling out a couple of boxes. "That's why I bought you these."

"Sit," she commanded, "I'm going to make you more irresistible than you already are."


End file.
